Wanderer's Tale
by Coach Shogun 20
Summary: 17 years after the end of the events of Shippuden, Konoha has a shortage of jounin. Desperate, the Hokage hires a mercenary and his student to instruct a team consisting of Konoha's brightest genin, the children of Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. All three of the students have their own secrets, but they soon discover that their sensei has more. Next-gen, rated M reasons inside.
1. Introduction

This is my first story in awhile. I already have the next several chapters written, but I don't want to get ahead of myself so I'm only gonna upload one a week.

Warning: This story is mainly based around original-characters, so if you're not a fan of OC, this might not be your thing.

Spoiler alert: I have read up to the most recent manga released and will be incorporating alot of things from shippuden in this story. If you don't want the story spoiled, you shouldn't read this story.

Rated M for violence, adult themes, drug references, language, and anything else just to be safe.

Disclaimer: Naruto, it's plot, and it's characters are owned by Masashi Kishimoto, not me.

* * *

Sasuke sat patiently at the table, waiting for his son to return home from his first mission as an ANBU member. He could hardly believe that just 15 years ago Kenta was an infant crawling around on the carpet, now he was almost a grown man going out on his own missions. Kenta was the prodigy Sasuke had hoped he'd be: Kenta graduated the academy at the age of 7, activated the Sharingan at 8, became a chunin at 9, became a jounin at 11, activated the Mangekyou Sharingan at age 12 (after his best friend died on a mission), and now at the age of 15 was in the ANBU. Many shinobi compared Kenta to Kakashi Hatake, and most speculated that Kenta would be stronger than Kakashi one day. Sasuke didn't expect any less of his child.

_15 years..._ Sasuke thought to himself, _Only 17 years ago I would never have imagined being proud that my son was in Konoha's ANBU. Naruto certainly is a strange one, to have convinced me to come back peacefully and to have convinced the villagers to accept me back. Granted, Karin and I were under village arrest for the first 3 years, but I chose that willingly. Destroying Konoha physically would've been nice, but it'll be much sweeter to end the Senju's control and make the Uchiha the dominant clan once again through subversive tactics instead. Once Kenta gets a wife and children, the true rebuilding of the clan can begin..._

The front door opened, distracting Sasuke from his train of thought. He looked towards the room's entrance expectantly while listening to the footsteps coming down the hall. "Oh," he said, "it's only you."

Standing in the archway was a young girl, no older than 12, about 4'12". Her shoulder-length black hair was unkempt and dirty, her black eyes avoided direct gaze with her father's. She continued stepping into the room with small, slow steps until she sat down at the table across from Sasuke.

"Sorry, I didn't mean anything by that. I'm just eager for your brother to return." He waited for her to respond, when she didn't he continued, "How was the academy today?"

"It was good." Haruko paused, playing with her hair a little. "We did more sparring today; my partner was Saki-chan this time."

Sasuke raised his eyebrow in interest. Haruko and Saki were always neck and neck, at least as far as grades went, but they had never sparred before. "Who won?"

"I did, but I think that she went easy on me because I know that she's better than me and it seemed like she just-"

"Nonsense," Sasuke cut her off, "You're my child after all, it's only right that you're the top of your class. Just like Kenta was."

Haruko took a second to absorb what her father just said and then smiled. It was rare that he compared her to Kenta, at least it was rare that the comparison was a good one.

* * *

"Dad! Mom! I'm home!"

"Hey! How's my little girl today?" Naruto picked his daughter up and swung her around a little before putting her back down. "Damn you're messy! Was some mean boy picking on you?"

Saki laughed, "No dad we were sparring. You know that if somebody picked on me I'd kick their ass!"

"Saki, please watch your language inside the house." Hinata walked over to see her daughter.

Saki kissed her mother on the cheek to apologize and then went up to her room. She threw her books down on the floor and then jumped on her bed laying on her stomach. Saki reached under her pillow and pulled out a picture of her classmate, Takuma Lee, staring dreamily at it for several seconds.

"One day Takuma-kun, you will be mine, I know it. All I have to do is impress you, then you'll never fall for that Nara cunt, Akane!"

_**Why do you waste you time fawning over boys when you should be training to get stronger? You lost to that Uchiha girl today!**_

_Jeez, who shat in your ramen? I lost to her on purpose. We were equally matched, the fight would've lasted for hours otherwise. Besides, Haruko's my friend, I don't care if I lose to her!_

_**You should care if you want to be the greatest shinobi ever. The greatest has to train hard and practice, otherwise they'll only be an average shinobi. You're already behind other shinobi, that Uchiha boy was a jounin by your age you know?**_

_So? My dad was still a genin at Kenta's age, and he's a fantastic shinobi!_

_**Your dad had strength that you don't, Saki-chan. You should go train now.**_

As Saki and the voice conversed in her head, she wrote down everything they said to each other. She wasn't sure why, but she felt in was important to do. Once she wrote everything down she locked the diary and put it into her bag.

_Maybe he's right, I don't want Haruko to get too far ahead of me, plus the graduation exam is tomorrow! I should get dad to help me train._

* * *

Takuma decided to take the long way home that afternoon after the academy. He had won his sparring match and just wanted a little peace before he had to face his rowdy father. Takuma frequently took long walks, especially through Konoha's numerous gardens and parks. The walks gave him inspiration for writing and poetry, which he wrote down once he got home. After walking for almost an hour, Takuma looked at his watch and decided to head to the main road to get home sooner. As he walked into the main road he noticed someone familiar, a black-haired girl from the academy.

_Hmmm... what's her name again? She never talks so I can't remember it._

"Hey, you in the green vest! Wait up!" Takuma shouted to her as he ran over.

The girl stopped and stared at him, but he couldn't tell what expression she had on her face since her vest's collar went up to her nose. She was obviously waiting for him so she must've wanted to say something to him. Realizing this, Takuma ran faster towards her.

_That's sounds like Takuma, is it? It is! Oh no, he's coming over here now, wait do I do, what should I say? Ugh, I can feel the sweat on my neck. I hope I don't start going on again, I always go on and on when he's listening to me._

"Hey, you go to the shinobi academy, right?" Takuma asked between deep breaths of air. Running that fast tired him out a bit.

"Yeah, I'm Haruko. I sit right in front of you in ninjustu class, but I think you sit across the room in genjutsu class and I don't think that we have any other classes together but maybe we do and I just don't know but I -"

_Oh that's right, Uchiha Haruko, how could I forget her? I'll just play it off like I never forgot._

"Don't worry, I already know. You're Saki's friend right?"

"Yeah, since as long as I can remember we've been best friends, almost like sisters I guess because she's always been there for me." Haruko smiled behind her collar but silently cursed herself for talking too much.

"Are you walking home? You look kinda lonely, maybe I could walk you back to your house"

_Is... is he really asking me that! This is like a dream come true!_

"Yes I am, and I'd love someone to walk home with me."

Takuma and Haruko walked back to her house, talking about various things like class, their teachers, the other kids, the village, their families, etc. As they talked, Haruko relaxed more and more. To her, time went by so quickly that it felt like she was home in minutes.

"Well, see ya tomorrow I guess." Takuma smiled.

"Yeah, thanks for walking me home." Haruko stood there for a second, hoping that Takuma would say something charming or even flat-out kiss her.

"No problem, good luck on the exam tomorrow!" Takuma said as he walked in the opposite direction, eager to get back home.

_Well, not all dreams can come true I suppose..._

* * *

**Elsewhere in the Fire Country...**

Two shinobi walked down a dirt road in the forest. The road was small, just large enough for the two of them or a small cart to travel down, and was clearly a side-road. They both were carrying large bags that probably weighed as much as they did. The older shinobi, a man in his early 20s was dress in dark attire. He wore a dark gray flack jacket with a black trench coat drawn over it. A scarf was wrapped around his lower face and his eyes were covered by sunglasses, leaving only his slicked back red hair exposed. The younger shinobi, a girl who looked in her late-teens, dressed slightly different. She wore the same gray flack jacket, leaving the zipper undone, with a red tank top underneath. Her kunai, shuriken, and senbon holders were strapped around her tight, mid-thigh length black shorts. Her dark brown hair was pulled into a ponytail in the back, tied off with a bandage wrap, and draped over her left shoulder resting on her chest. Several tattoos were visible on her arms and chest. Unlike the other shinobi, she did not wear anything covering her face, which had a look of maturity on it.

"Where the hell are we going again Suzume?" The man spoke to the girl.

"I told you Hayabusa-sensei, Konohakagure! They have a shortage of shinobi and will surely need our talents."

"Pfft, our talents are blowing shit up and causing mayhem, what use will Konoha have for us? They haven't been in a war since Fourth Shinobi War when I was just a child!" Hayabusa reached into his pocket and pulled out a pill, then pulled his scarf down to swallow it.

"You never know! Maybe Konoha wants to cripple another country or village but doesn't want to declare war over it. That's our real talent: being secretive!"

"I suppose so, but I still can't see why they wouldn't hire wanderers from the nearest camp instead."

"We're better, that's why."

"Don't get cocky now, there are shinobi in every camp that could kick our asses. Let's focus on walking now, we still have quite a ways to go before the nearest town even, it will still take another day to get to Konoha!"

"Then we'd better hurry, right?" Suzume said as she began to run ahead of her sensei. Hayabusa just sighed and started chasing after her.

* * *

"Mom, dad, I'm home!" Takuma put his books down on the table by the door.

"It's about time! Dinner's been ready for half an hour." Sakura walked over and kissed her son on his cheek.

"Sorry mom."

"Don't scold him, Sakura-chan. He was out enjoying the wonders of youth!" Lee looked at his son and winked, giving him a thumbs up.

Takuma ignored his father and sat down to eat. He ate as quickly as he could, talking very little. This was normal, so his parents thought nothing of it. Once Takuma had finished he took his dishes over to the sink and rinsed them, then went out on the roof. Sakura kept a small garden on the roof, ranging from decorative flowers to the vegetables and roots that they'd have for dinner sometimes. Takuma thought that it was a peaceful place to write.

_Dark out? Perfect, the full moon will give me inspiration. Let's see... how about this:_

_Bright calming light,_

_Coming only at night,_

_Surely gazing at you must be right._

_No, too simple. _Takuma scratched it out of his pad. _Maybe:_

_Eternal flowing dark,_

_Interspersed with stars,_

_Surrounding the moon,_

_You seem so close, but are really so far._

_Yeah, I like that one. _Takuma circled it and put a check next to it before looking around more inspiration. While he was looking around a picture fell out of his pad. _The class photo from last year? Hmmm, that Uchiha girl – what's her name... Haruko, that's right – is the only one not smiling._ After a few more moments of thought, Takuma flipped to a new page and started writing:

_Who is this girl I barely know,_

_Where did she come from,_

_Where will she go?_

_Will we be friends?_

_Or maybe more?_

_I can't tell,_

_Only time knows for sure._

Takuma paused and re-read what he just wrote. _I'm not entirely sure why I wrote that last part about more than friends... I barely know her, and I can't even tell if she's pretty because of her collar. Still, why can't I stop thinking about her?_

* * *

"Kenta, how was the mission?"

"Can't you greet me first father? I'd appreciate something along the lines of 'I'm glad you're home safe.' or 'Welcome back son!' but it's always straight to business with you isn't it?" Kenta laughed under his pig-shaped ANBU mask. When his father didn't laugh, Kenta spoke seriously, "It went well. I'd tell you what it was but it was top-secret I'm afraid."

"It went well? Just as I'd expect, you're my son after all." Sasuke stared at his son for a few seconds. "I'll never understand why you chose that stupid pig mask instead of something more threatening."

"What? This? It's hilarious! Everyone else loves it, even Haruko-chan! Right little sis?"

Haruko just smiled wide and nodded. She was relieved when he came back home alive, and even though there were a few cuts on his sleeves she wasn't worried about him.

"Whatever, take that mask off now. It's time to eat."

Kenta removed his ANBU mask revealing his face, which was shaped almost exactly like his father's. The main difference being that he had received both his mother's red eyes and straight red hair, which Kenta kept cut extremely short. He looked very little like Haruko, who looked like her mother but had her father's hair and eyes.

After dinner Kenta went into Haruko's room and looked at the pictures she had hanging on the wall. There was one of Sasuke, Karin, Kenta, and Haruko as an infant, then one of Sasuke and Haruko as a toddler, then one of Haruko as a child on Kenta's shoulders, and finally a recent one of Haruko and Saki hugging each other.

"You're smiling in almost all of these pictures... It's strange to see you smile this much, even if it is a picture." Kenta laughed and walked over to his sister. "Hey kiddo, what's on your mind?"

Haruko looked up at her brother, then back down at the ground. She started playing with her hair, which Kenta noticed fairly quickly. He sighed and sat down next to her, knowing that something big was on her mind.

"Come on, you can tell me anything."

"Well," Haruko finally spoke, "Tomorrow's the graduation exam and I'm not sure if I can pass or not, and I really want to do better than Saki-chan, but I think she's smarter than me and better at jutsu than me, and I really wanna impress Daddy so I hope tha..." Kenta put his finger over Haruko's lip and smiled at her.

"Relax kiddo, I've seen your grades. You'll do fine, trust me. Do you know what the jutsu exam is going to be?"

"No. Last year it was clones I think."

Kenta sighed to himself. _It's been clones every year. They always play it up like its gonna be something completely different, "so you'd better practice all your jutsu!" or you'll fail, but every year it's clones. It was clones for dad, it was clones for me, and it'll be clones for Haruko-chan..._

"I'd practice that a little tonight, you never know, they could always do it again." Kenta stood up and started walking to his room.

"Wait, one more thing Kenta."

"Yeah kiddo?"

"Well," Haruko thought to herself for a moment, "nevermind, you wouldn't understand."

"Oh really now? Try me."

"No, it's a girl thing. I was stupid to bring it up."

"Now I'm interested, tell me kiddo."

_Should I ask him about Takuma-kun? No, I don't think so. But I've gotta come up with something..._

"Am I pretty?"

"You ask me this all the time, and what do I always tell you?" Kenta laughed.

"I'd be lucky if the woman I fall in love with is half as pretty as you, kiddo." Haruko and Kenta both repeated what he always told her.

"There, now get some rest. You've got a long day ahead of you tomorrow."

* * *

"Slow down Suzume!"

"Run faster sensei."

"I can't, I've got both our weapons stashes in here. Steel's not very light you know."

"Sorry sensei, I'll wait for you."

Suzume slowed down and looked back for her sensei. He was a few meters behind and would catch up soon. Suzume decided to stretch when she noticed three small rectangles forming on the inside of her left wrist. She dropped the bag and drew a kunai from her pouch. Hayabusa, noticing his student, dropped his bag with a loud clang and drew a katana from behind his back, under his coat.

"Damn, they noticed us."

Smoke bombs went off around Suzume and Hayabusa. When the smoke cleared, they were surrounded by three shinobi, each with a blank headband.

"Prepare to face the wrath of Kaji camp's finest trio of Shinobi! To my left, Yaiba! To my right, Ookami! And finally me, the mastermind leader, Mijuuchin!" The shinobi speaking was a woman in her mid twenties. "We saw your blank hitai-ates, and having never seen you before figured you were from a rival camp."

"That's correct. We're from Yami camp, though we're currently in exile."

"Exile? Hmmm, then your camp won't mind if we kill you and take your loot. After all, Yami and Kaji may not be friends but their not at war and we'd hate to start one."

"You don't seem to realize who you've attacked yet, I'd be running if I were you." Suzume stood on her guard, wishing she had something larger than a kunai to defend herself.

"A blind man and a foolish girl is all I see." Mijuuchin laughed to herself.

"How many blind shinobi have you heard of?" Hayabusa's left hand left his sword to reach into his pocket and pull out a pill, which he went once again pulled down his scarf to swallow.

The three thought for a moment. Before they could come to an answer, however, Yaiba was on the ground screaming, clutching his side. Hayabusa struck with incredible speed. The other two prepared themselves. Suzume threw her kunai at Ookami, who dodged it quickly. The kunai was just a distraction, however, and when Ookami looked back at her, there were two Suzumes.

"Shadow clone! I'll take care of that easily. Katon Technique, Flaming Fist Jutsu!" Ookami made the appropriate hand seals. His hands caught fire and he then punched one of the Suzume's, severely burning her face. "So that was the real one, where's the clone then?"

The other Suzume dropped down from the trees and stabbed several senbon into his neck before jumping off and landing in front of him.

"You bitch!" Ookami screamed as he punched her, sending her flying through the air and burning her clothes and stomach. "Wait, she's not a clone? But then how are there two of her?"

The Suzume's stood up and walked next to each other, each making an identical hand seal. They slowly began to meld back together, like liquid almost, until their bodies were one again. The new body seemed to only have taken half the damage from each attack.

"It's not a clone technique, it's a separation technique. I'd explain it to you more in-depth, but you're about to die" Suzume stuck her tongue out and smiled at her opponent.

"What?" It was then that Ookami realized the senbon in his neck just caught fire, "You wrapped explosive tags around them? Shit!"

The tags exploded, separating Ookami's head from his torso and simultaneously cauterizing his neck. Not that it mattered since his head was now flying through the air.

Meanwhile, Hayabusa had opened the weapons bag up, and wrapped Yaiba in chains, while fighting Mijuuchin and defeated her, not once using a jutsu at all.

"You bastard, you must be Bloodbath Hayabusa. I can't believe I didn't recognize you immediately. I failed Kaji, please kill me."

"You don't deserve death, not yet. You have to suffer before you can deserve death. By my hand, you will experience true pain." Hayabusa stood up and grabbed a tiny blade.

"Sensei, we don't have time. Let's just take their money and kill them now. Besides, you already have enough enemies."

"Fine. Ruin all the fun. Let's at least check for bounties in the bingo book." Hayabusa opened his year-old bingo book and searched for Mijuuchin, Ookami, and Yaiba. "Ah, here you are. Mijuuchin of Kaji, bounty... 10,000,000 ryo... pathetic. I assume your teammates aren't much higher. Let me show you my student, Suzume. Let's see... 30,500,000 ryo. More than three times your pathetic bounty. Mine, is much higher than her's even." Hayabusa shut his bingo book and put it away, "Your bounty isn't even worth collecting to me. You've lived a pathetic, worthless excuse as a shinobi and have brought shame to Kaji camp. You're older than me, but have accomplished less than my student, who in my camp is still considered a genin! You are worthless pieces of shit." Hayabusa placed an explosive tag on the ground and walked away with his weapons bag towards Suzume... the explosion followed shortly after, decimating everything for 5 meters in all directions.

"Can we at least get his bounty sensei?" Suzume held up Ookami's head.

"I suppose. I think he was worth 15,000,000." Hayabusa shook his head, "They never stood a chance against us. Let's go, we need to heal your burns."

The two shinobi picked up their bags and continued down the road as if nothing had happened. Suzume put Ookami's head into her bag until they were able to find a bounty office to turn him in at.

* * *

Notes: For the purposes of this fanfic, 1 Ryo = $0.75 I know that the conversion rate given by Kishi is different, but for my fanfic this works better.

That's the first chapter. I'll upload the second one sometime next week. This was mainly to introduce all the main characters, and the next starts the plot moving. Thanks for reading!


	2. A Job in Konoha

"Alright class, now that you've all passed the written exam, it's time for the jutsu exam! Today's exam will be on..."

_Calm down Haruko, Kenta-san told you that it's probably gonna be clones. Relax. You're playing with your hair again... that's not relaxing._

"Katon Fireballs!"

_What? I can't do a fireball yet, I don't think anyone in our class can!_

"First will be Uchiha Kenta!"

_What's Kenta-san doing in my class?_

Kenta walked to the front of the class and performed the jutsu impressively, scorching the walls and floor.

"Excellent work Kenta. Next is Uchiha Haruko!"

Haruko walked up to the front of the room and attempted to do the jutsu, instead creating a tiny flicker of a flame that went out in a second.

"You fail." Her sensei looked down at her in shame, it was then that she noticed he looked alot like Sasuke oddly enough.

Haruko jumped out of her bed in a cold sweat. She breathed deeply for a few moments before she finally realized what had happened.

_A nightmare... that's the third one this night. I better go get the sleeping pills._

Haruko wiped the sweat off her with her blanket and walked towards the kitchen. She'd frequently have nightmares as a child, so Sasuke had gotten her sleeping pills that would help her sleep. She wouldn't dream, but she wouldn't have nightmares either.

"What are you doing up this late? Your exam's tomorrow." Sasuke was sitting at the dinner table with Juugo, both were sipping sake.

"Hello Juugo-senpai. I've had three nightmares tonight father, I'm getting the pills."

"It's too late, you'll still be tired when you go to class." Sasuke paused, realizing his daughter was probably nervous about her exam, and decided to comfort her. "Don't worry about it. You'll do fine. What was your nightmare about anyways?"

"I couldn't do the Katon Great Fireball."

"That's it?" Sasuke stood up, "That's a very advanced technique Haruko-san, there's no reason an academy student should be able to do it. Try to relax and get some sleep, okay?"

"Yes father."

"Hey, Haruko..."

"Yes, Juugo-senpai?"

"You'll do fine."

* * *

The next morning Saki met Haruko out in the street. Haruko herself looked much better than she had yesterday, with her hair combed down covering the left side of her face. Saki looked much nicer than she did after the sparring and had her long hair pulled into two pigtails. They met every morning and walked to the academy together. It had been a tradition ever since they became friends.

"You ready for the exam? I know I am!" Saki had a big goofy smile on her face as they walked.

"I guess... I just hope I do well."

"Stop second-guessing yourself! You're in the top of the class, just like me, we're gonna do great."

"Thanks." Haruko smiled behind her collar.

"You know, if I were you I'd get rid of that high collar, people can't see your face at all."

"It's not very pretty, so I don't think anyone would want to see it."

"No one will know if its pretty if you keep it covered up like that! I bet you're almost as pretty as me!"

Two boys walking behind them heard what Saki said. One boy leaned over to the other and said, "Saki? Pretty? In her dreams maybe!" The other boy started to laugh. Saki heard them and turned around, sticking her tongue out and flipping her middle finger over her shoulder. The two backed off and apologized.

"Boys... nothing but worthless pieces of shit, right?"

Haruko laughed and replied, "Not all of them. Kenta's nice, what about your little brother?"

"Him especially! Ichirou's always putting shit in my lunch! That's why I finally started going out to the ramen stand to get lunch instead."

Haruko just laughed and the two continued to the academy.

* * *

**In a town near Konoha, inside an underground bounty office...**

"Ookami of Kaji camp!" Suzume dropped Ookami's head onto the desk.

"Hmmm, it's definitely him alright. But in my notes it says he's part of trio that never separate. What about them?"

"We killed them, and we could've got their bounties also if _somebody_ would play a little less rough!" Suzume glanced at her sensei, who shrugged in response.

"I didn't even want to kill them, you told me to." Hayabusa pulled another pill out of his pocket and swallowed it.

"But you could've just decapitated them instead! Then we'd be about 20,000,00 ryo richer!"

"You say you killed them... I'll believe you, but with no proof I can only give you Ookami's bounty." The bounty officer interrupted.

"Yes damnit! I know that, just give me the Ryo already!"

The bounty official handed Suzume the money, to which her face lit up greatly. She immediately began counting out the bills. Once she had finished she seemed surprised.

"This is 23,000,000 ryo! His bounty must've gone up since your bingo book was published sensei."

"That's good, can we go now? I hate the smell of dead bodies."

"If you'd like sir, I can sell you a new bingo book very cheap." The bounty officer picked up a bingo book, almost twice the size of Hayabusa's.

"Not interested."

Hayabusa turned and walked away out of the room. Suzume paid for a new bingo book before following her sensei out into the town.

"Well, we should be able to live off this for a while, right sensei?"

"Right. Let's find a hotel to stay at. They're all probably over-priced in this resort town."

"Can we go to the hot-springs sensei, please?"

Hayabusa sighed, "Go ahead, I'll find a hotel and then meet you there."

Suzume split the money in half and then ran towards the hot-springs spa. Hayabusa began walking around looking for a cheap hotel. Every hotel he went to had too expensive of prices, and eventually Hayabusa decided to just camp. Once he had purchased lunch for himself, he started walking towards the hot-springs when a Konoha shinobi stopped him.

"You're a wanderer, right? I'll need to see your passport."

"Here." Hayabusa handed him his official documents of visitation. "I also have a student traveling with me but since she's a minor she's covered by my papers, right?"

"That's right sir. Okay, everything seems to be in order, you're free to go."

As Hayabusa started to walk away a man bumped into him in the street. The man was much larger than Hayabusa and glared at him with a sharp intent.

"Watch where you're going you blind bastard!"

The next thing the man knew Hayabusa had grabbed his wrist and snapped it back, breaking it. "I don't think you know who you're talking to." The man cried out in pain, "Does that hurt? You don't know the true definition of pain yet." Hayabusa gripped his wrist harder, shattering more bones. Suddenly Hayabusa let go and started walking away, "I would watch who you cross in the future, especially since your wrist won't heal for several months."

* * *

**Inside Konoha's Academy...**

"Welcome back from lunch students." The teacher paused and let her students settle, "I'm proud to announce that everyone in this class passed the written exam."

The students smiled and offered each other congratulations. Several girls went up to Takuma to congratulate him, but he ignored them and mentally thought of more poetry. Saki and Haruko looked at each other with excitement, Saki wondering who scored higher, Haruko relieved that she passed. Once the students all settled down, the teacher resumed, "The Jutsu exam will be on your ability to make at least 3 bunshins!"

_So Kenta-san was right I guess, that's encouraging..._

"Sensei, can I do kage bunshins instead? My daddy taught me how to do them and they're way cooler!"

"My dad taught me about the bees and the birds, but you don't hear me telling everyone." One of the boys in the class said, followed by the laughter of several other classmates.

"You want me to kick your ass you little piece of shit!"

"Saki! Calm down or I'll fail you now. As for the rest of you, no more talking out of turn! And Saki..."

"Yes sensei?"

"You will do the jutsu we ask for or you will fail!"

* * *

**Later that day, in the hokage's office...**

"This is bad, this is very bad... Hokage-sama!"

"Yes, what is it this time?" Kakashi wasn't used to his duties as Hokage yet, and would've much rather been training a new team of genin.

"We don't have enough jounin for all the students that passed! We're one short!"

"Ebisu, will you calm down? We can find someone."

"We've already asked all the village's remaining jonin, but they all refused."

_I really hate this job... I can't wait for the Elders to say I can retire.._

Kakashi was getting ready to speak when another shinobi entered the room. "Hokage-sama, I'd hate to disrupt you, but there's important news."

"What is it?"

"The infamous Blind Wanderer and his student are in the Fire Country, just south of Konoha in a hot-springs resort town."

"Hmm, this could solve our problems... inform him and his student I'd like an audience with them to discuss a contract."

"Yes Hokage-sama." The shinobi left, shutting the door behind him.

"You can't be serious Kakashi... You're not really going to hire them to be genin instru-"

"We'll see Ebisu, we'll see."

* * *

"Hey, you passed! I knew you could do it kiddo!" Kenta and Sasuke were waiting outside for Haruko.

"I expected nothing less." Sasuke said, smiling at his daughter briefly.

"I knew you'd pass, I knew it Saki-san!" Naruto picked his daughter up and spun her around.

"Please dad, it was easy. After all, who couldn't make three simple clones?

Hinata laughed and bumped Naruto with her elbow, reminding him how he failed. Naruto just glared at her in response. Hinata laughed again and said, "We're very proud of you sweetie."

Ichirou held up his hand for Saki to high-five. Everyone had smiles on their faces and students were promised their favorite dinners or restaurants as rewards for passing. Parents hugged their children and children smiled and laughed.

"Go ahead Takuma-san, put your hitai-ate on!" Sakura said after she kissed her son on his cheek.

"Not now. Can you stitch it onto my bandana mom?"

"Of course, but I don't see why you wear that thing all the time."

"Congratulations son! You're about to enter into the golden springtime of youth!" Lee kicked the air as he spoke, then gave his son a thumbs up and a wink.

"Put it on Haruko-chan, let's see my new shinobi sister wear her forehead protector. Here, I'll help." Kenta grabbed Haruko's forehead protector and tied it around her head so that some of her hair covered the side and back of it. "You're a real shinobi now Haruko-chan, just like me."

"Put it on sweetie!" Naruto pointed at his daughter's headband, "Here, I'll take those stupid old goggles of mine off you."

"No! I like the goggles dad, can't I just wear it like this?" Saki tied it around her neck so it hung slightly loose.

"If that's what you want, sure!" Naruto noticed Kakashi was there congratulating the kids and pulled Saki over to him. "What do you think Kakashi sensei? Is she gonna be better than me someday?"

"No doubt, she actually passed her classes _and_ her exam, unlike you." Saki laughed before Kakashi continued, "Anyways, I have no doubt that little Saki-san here will grow up to be a great shinobi."

"You think I could be the greatest, Hokage-sama?"

"Hmm... that depends. A great shinobi just isn't one who knows a lot of techniques, it's one who knows how to use those techniques and who to use them on. I'm sure you'll figure it out though."

Kakashi looked over to the Uchihas, "Although, you've got some stiff competition over there. Haruko's one of the finest students in your class, but so are you. You two need to keep a competitive edge and not let the other get too far ahead alright?"

"Yes Hokage-sama" Saki smiled.

"So who's going to be my daughter's sensei?" Sasuke walked over to Kakashi and Naruto.

"Sasuke, you know that we don't have that information available right now. Don't worry though, every jounin who will be leading the genin teams is a fine shinobi."

Sasuke left shortly after that, telling Haruko they could eat whatever she wanted to that night. Haurko silently thought to herself what she wanted. Kenta walked over to Naruto and shook his hand.

"Naruto-sensei, it's always good to see you." Kenta took his mask off, so his sensei could see his face.

"Kenta-san! I was proud when I heard you joined ANBU!" Naruto pulled Kenta in for a hug, surprising Kenta.

"Thanks sensei, it's partially thanks to the training you gave me. Hell, it's mainly thanks to the training you gave me. Speaking of which, are you training a rookie team this year?"

"Nope, still have last year's team. They still don't feel like they're ready for the chunin exams yet."

"Well I wish them the best of luck... unless they end up fighting Haruko-chan in the 3rd round, in which case I'll be rooting for her."

"As I'd expect. Fortunately you don't have to choose between your daughter and your students, that'll be hard if it comes to it."

Kenta stayed for a while longer, until another ANBU shinobi came and got him. After that Haruko went over to Saki and the two talked about their future as genins.

"I hope Takuma-kun's on my team! You too Haruko! That way I'd have my best friend and my future boyfriend with me all the time!"

"You know, you always do this things for Takuma-kun and tell him you love him but he seems to ignore you. I'm beginning to think he might not like you."

"That thought's crossed my mind a few times, then I remember: I'm me, why wouldn't Takuma-kun like me?"

Haruko laughed, then paused before saying, "I wonder who our sensei will be."

"I hope he's cool!"

* * *

**In the Hokage's Office...**

"Alright, you've called me in here knowing full-well who I am... who or what do you need blown up?" Hayabusa and Suzume stood before the Hokage's desk.

"We don't need anything, or anyone, blown up. This is a _different_ kind of mission. One that requires a certain finesse to it."

"Oh, you mean like assassination or spying, right? I don't think we've spied for a year or so, but we can give it a shot, right sensei?"

"Of course. Perhaps you need a secret letter delivered, Hokage-sama, we can do that easily."

"Okay, I'm going to be blunt from now on. We want you to instruct a genin team."

Hayabusa and Suzume were silent for a moment, before Hayabusa spoke up, "Are you sure that's wise? The bingo book describes me as a 'cruel sadist with no remorse for his enemies.' That's usually not genin-instructor material."

"I'm not stupid Hayabusa-san. I'm seeing the patterns form. After the Fourth Shinobi War, no villages wanted to fight anymore. How could they when they just fought together as one? The daimyos of course didn't understand and still wanted to expand their power. Not being able to, they started hiring mercenaries. Mercenaries began organizing into camps, such as Yami or Kaji, made blank hitai-ates, and called themselves 'wandering shinobi'. You wanderers are becoming more and more common, and we don't understand you at all. That's why I'm giving you three of our brightest to train and teach how to deal with wandering shinobis. That's why we need you."

"Hokage-sama, I still think this is a bad idea. Look at this man's record! He's a dangerous, dangerous man."

"Ebisu-san, I didn't invite a man nicknamed 'Bloodbath Hayabusa' into my office without knowing he was dangerous. I think he understands that I'm more dangerous, however."

"Of course, I'd never dream of fighting the Copy-Nin Kakashi. Stories about you are rampant in the camps. The price on your head is admirable... only a little higher than mine."

"So do we have a deal?"

"We don't accept or deny until we hear payment plans!" Suzume leaned over his desk, "So start talking, old man!"

_Such disrespect to Hokage-sama! I can't believe Kakashi would hire these two!_

Hayabusa smacked his student on the head, "Show some damned respect!" He turned to Kakashi, "I'm sorry, Hokage-sama. She has an unhealthy obsession with money. The bingo book even says so. Her obsession causes her to forget her manners."

"Hmm, so it does. 'Has as unhealthy an obsession with money as her sensei (see Hayabusa, pg. 45) has with other people's pain.' Hmm... the bingo book likes playing your sadist side."

"It's easier to hunt someone down when you think they're a horrible person. I'll admit I'm a sadist, but I like to think I'm killing their weak part and making them stronger."

"I can keep him in check as far as that goes, Hokage-sama, you don't need to worry. Now about the money..."

"You'll get free room and board, you'll receive a monthly stipend for food about 1250 ryo. Plus you'll receive payment for each successful mission you complete with your team."

"1250 ryo! We'd never accept such a low offer!"

Another smack to the head, "Of course we'll accept Hokage-sama. 1250 ryo is more than enough for food. We appreciate your business in choosing us as your mercenaries of choice!" Hayabusa bowed, and forced Suzume to bow before they turned to leave.

"One more thing, if you don't mind my asking. How did you become blind?"

"I was born with special eyes, like the sharingan or byakugan but stronger. Then one day in my sleep, someone snuck into my tent, drugged me and stole them."

"Sensei, that's a lie and you know it. I'm sorry Hokage-sama, sensei thinks it's funnier to tell people lies instead of telling them he'd rather not go into the details."

"That's fine, you two are dismissed. Report to the academy at about 9:00 am to gather your students and introduce yourselves, everything you need to know is in your folder." Kakashi waved as they walked out the door.

"Are you sure it's wise to put our three brightest in one group, let alone their group?"

"We're going to need our brightest to deal with wanderers in the future. They're clever bastards... I looked at the passport Hayabusa-san showed our shinobi. It was forged."

* * *

**9:30 am, the next morning at the academy...**

"I can't believe that we get to be in a special team! I wonder what we'll get to do?" Saki was teeming with excitement.

_ Father was proud when he found out I'm in a special squad. I think it almost made up for him being disappointed that I was second to Saki in grades._

"Will you please shut up? I'm sure we won't get to much else different, we're still genin you know?" Takuma couldn't focus on his poetry with Saki talking so much.

Suddenly the door opened, with a man in his early 20s and a girl in her mid-teens standing there. "This Team #1?"

"Yep."

"I'm Hayabusa, I'll be your sensei. This is Suzume, she's my student also but is your superior. You will respect everything she says as if I said it instead. Let's go for a walk." Hayabusa put his hand to his mouth and swallowed something as he turned around.

_Geez, what buzzkill. This guy's got stick up his ass or something._

_**Don't worry, he's strong. With him you'll get much stronger Saki.**_

_Really? This guy? He looks blind._

_**That is part of what gives him strength.**_

The team walked silently throughout Konoha until they had left the actual city and started up a trail along the mountain. They stopped at a garden with a fountain overlooking the city by a cliff. The view was breathtaking and Takuma made a note to come back at night.

"Sorry if I came off a little harsh back there. Let's get one thing straight though: I don't trust you. Trust isn't founded on first impressions, it takes a long time to build. For me to warm up to you, I have to trust you. This will come naturally, don't worry."

"So do we have to wait until before or after you trust us to learn cool jutsu?" Saki raised her hand, but spoke before he acknowledge her.

"After I trust you, I'll teach you many things. But for now, I don't even know you. Tell me each about yourselves."

"Me first!" Saki raised her hand again, "I'm Uzumaki Saki! I have a little brother named Ichirou, and one day I'd like to be the greatest shinobi ever!"

"That's a noble goal, are you willing to die for it?" Hayabusa asked.

"Um, I guess I would be."

"The greatest shinobi often don't die peacefully. They die on a mission, defending who they love most. That is what makes a shinobi truly great, defending those close to them." Hayabusa paused, then perked up and pointed at Haruko, "You go next."

"I'm Uchiha Haruko. I live with my father and older brother, who's in ANBU now."

"Is that it?"

"Huh?"

"Do you have a goal, a purpose? Why did you become a shinobi?"

"Well, both my parents were and my brother was, so I figured I should too."

"Hmm, I see. You, bandana-boy."

"My name is Lee Takuma. I live with my parents and soon I'll have a baby brother or sister. My passion is writing and one day I'd love to travel the world and write a great shinobi novel."

"I now understand you three a little better, but you still don't understand me too much. I'll go now. I'm Hayabusa of Yami, Suzume is my only family now, and my goal... is very personal. I'm afraid I don't trust you enough yet to tell you."

"I'm Suzume of Yami, Hayabusa-sensei's like a father to me, and one day I'd like to be reunited with a special person who was very close to me."

"Is it a boy?" Saki bounced up an down on the edge of her seat.

"No." Suzume looked off in the distance, "Are there any questions you have for us?"

"How did you become blind, sensei?" Saki raised her hand again.

"Does this one ever shut up?" Hayabusa sighed, "I was born blind, I've always been like this."

"Sensei's lying, he likes to lie about his eyes."

"When I trust you, I mean really trust you, I'll tell you the truth. Anymore questions?"

Takuma raised his hand, "Why did the village hire wandering shinobi to train genin?"

"Your village wants to have a special team, to negotiate with wandering shinobi camps and better understand them. You're that special team. Anymore?"

"I have one." Haruko raised her hand, "What are those markings on your arm, Suzume-senpai?"

_She actually calls me senpai? Well, if she's Uchiha her father probably raised her to respect elders. I guess I can tell her about these._

"They're tattoos!" Suzume held her arm up so they could see, "But not just any tattoos, these are chakra tattoos."

"Chakra tattoos?"

"Yep, they're really handy. This one," she point to the kanji tattoo for father on her right hand, "detects Hayabusa-sensei's chakra and becomes darker or lighter depending on how far he is. These," she pointed to the three rectangles on her left wrist, "tell me when other people are nearby by sensing their chakra. There's three because there's three of you here. I have lots more that do lots more things, but I'll tell you about those later."

"It's getting late, you all should go home and rest. You'll have a hard day tomorrow. We'll meet in front of the academy one hour before sunrise" Hayabusa brought his hand to his mouth again, swallowing another pill.

"You three certainly have a beautiful city here. I wish you could see, it Hayabusa-sensei." Suzume stood by the edge, admiring the view.

Hayabusa stayed silent as his students gradually left. After Suzume watched the sunset, the two of them both left as well.

* * *

That's chapter two. I hope you liked it. Thanks for reading and please review if you feel there's anything that I need to improve upon.


	3. Sensei's Test

**Alright, time for the next chapter. Thank you for reading and don't forget to review and let me know what you think!**

* * *

_Ugh, I'm so tired... I shouldn't have stayed up late playing ninja with Ichirou..._

Haruko and Takuma both stood in front of the academy and watched as Saki walked up. They were all dressed in training gear and wearing their Hitai-ates proudly, Takuma's as a bandana like he asked his mom. Takuma was writing poetry down in his notebook, scratching something out occasionally. To him, this sleep-deprived state would give him new insight to old ideas hopefully.

"What'cha writing Takuma-kun?" Saki tried to look over his shoulder, but he snapped the notebook shut.

"Poems."

"About me?"

"Through metaphors and analogies yes... my last one was called _Ode to an Ugly Mule_. Wanna hear it?"

Saki got a depressed look on her face and walked over to Haruko. Haruko herself, was too tired to notice the conversation that just went on or even that Saki was standing next to her.

"I'm sorry Saki, I'm just a little upset that we had to get up so early."

Saki perked up, eager to talk to Takuma about anything, "I know right? Why can't we just start later in the day?"

"Because this is going to take the whole day!" Suzume yelled as she and Hayabusa jumped down from the academy roof.

"Hmm... Bandana-Boy, Loud-Mouth, and the Hair-Dresser." Hayabusa pointed at Takuma, Saki, and Haruko respectively. Haruko realized that she was playing with her hair and stopped. "I'm glad to see you're all here on time. Follow me." Hayabusa turned and started walking away, while taking his hand to his mouth once again.

Hayabusa led them out of the village and to a training site that was near a small creek.

"Now, even though you're all the top of your class you still have to pass a second test."

"A second test? What is this shit? We already passed a written exam and a jutsu exam!" Saki was outraged.

"Yeah sensei, why do we have to do a second test?" Takuma said, looking around him and making a mental note to go back there later to write.

"Well, there can only be 9 total genin per year, but 30 passed in your class. This means that some won't be able to remain genin. Hokage-sama told me to administer a test to you that he called the bells test. I looked over it and it seemed stupid, so I'm giving you another test. Put these on." Hayabusa handed them each a blindfold. "There, now I'm going to go hide in the forest. Suzume will make sure that I'm well-hidden before she lets you go. Your goal is to find me by sunset!"

Having said all he needed to, Hayabusa crept away into the woods to hide himself from his students. Suzume waited until the chakra tattoo on her hand was nearly entirely faded to tell the students they could start searching.

"This is bullshit! How the hell are we supposed to find him when we can't see anything?" Saki stumbled around blindly, accidentally falling in the creek in the process. "Fuck!"

"Sensei said you have to figure it out by yourselves. I'm just here to keep you from dying."

Takuma stood still and listened around him. Various branches were being broken, leaves rustling, wind blowing, creek babbling... almost anything sounded like it could be Hayabusa. _Complete blindess and helplessness... that would be a good theme for a poem or even a short story..._

Haruko stood thinking to herself. _I've got to do this, if I can activate the sharingan I should be able to locate him. But I've never done sharingan... I'm gonna fail. _ She began playing with her hair while she tought.

Suzume looked at the three pre-teens attempt to find their sensie and thought, _They're not doing well, but they're a lot more calm than I was when Hayabusa-sensei did this for me..._

"Wait! I know, I can just use byakugan!" Saki said as she stepped out of the river.

"No kekkei genkais! Sensei told me to make sure you understood that!"

"Why the hell not? When am I ever going to be completely blind?"

"Sensei once thought the same way as you, then look what happened to him. Lucky for him, his sensei had trained him this way also, so even once he became blind he could still be a shinobi. By using your byakugan you're only cheating yourself."

"Then how?"

Suzume hesitated for a moment, before finally caving in, "Okay, I'll explain what's going on. You know about tracker shinobi, right?"

"They can detect other's chakra, right Suzume-senpai?"

"Exactly Haruko! Every shinobi has this capability in them, just not all are trained in it. This is slightly different though. Think of it this way: When you're seeing something, it's light bouncing off objects, right? You can use chakra in the same way as light by releasing some from your body and waiting for it to come back, which happens almost instantly. Some chakra naturally leaks – for lack of a better term – out of our bodies like this, but it's too little to detect when it bounces back. What you want to do is memorize your personal chakra signature, which is the really easy part, then allow more than normal to 'leak' out of your body, that's the easy part, then feel it as it hits your body on its way back, the hard part, and determine your surroundings based on that, the really hard part." Suzume let it sink it before continuing, "It should only take until about noon for you to get the basics down, so you can spend the afternoon finding sensei."

"What's the point of us doing this since we're not blind?"

"Well, it'd be better if I showed you." Suzume covered her eyes with her left hand and with her right threw a kunai. The kunai flew through the air, placing itself in a knothole the size of a thumb-nail in a tree about 100 meters away. "Unlike sight, chakra detection like this is much more accurate. It's possible to see all the tiny details you couldn't regularly, making it a useful skill. The minute details you can feel this way are so great that sensei can read from books from the differences between the ink and the page."

The three genin looked in amazement before replacing their blindfolds and beginning to train themselves. Suzume chuckled to herself when the three started bumping into trees, tripping over rocks, and falling in the river. After nearly 6 hours of training, however, Haruko could use the technique fairly well. Eventually Takuma got a good grip on it and the two left to find sensei, leaving Saki still trying to use it. Saki tried for several more hours, until it was about 2 P.M. but still couldn't get it. After she tripped over a rock one time, she didn't get back up. Suzume noticed and went over to her.

"What's wrong?"

"I can't do this!"

"Why don't you just use your byakugan then and pretend you did it?"

"You said it yourself, that would only be cheating me out of the training's benefits." Saki pulled her blindfold off to reveal her eyes were red and puffy from crying. "I'm just a fucking failure."

"Get up." Suzume said to Saki, who stayed on the ground. "Come on, get up!" This time Suzume helped Saki up. "Listen here, I'll help you out. Put your blindfold back on," Saki did as told, "Now then, we're going to practice releasing and detecting the chakra separately, okay? First I want you to release some of your chakra. I'll detect it and tell you if you're doing it right."

"Like this?" Saki released some of her chakra.

"Hmm, I think I see your problem. You're releasing too much and not uniformly. I want you to try releasing chakra just from the tip of your nose at me."

"The tip of my nose? Okay." Saki released a little more chakra.

"Good, that felt like it should. Now then, you're gonna work on detecting my chakra as I release it towards you, got it?"

"I think so." Saki waited for Suzume to release her chakra, "It feels like a hand on my stomach."

"Good, can you feel it as I move it?"

"Yes, you're moving it down my leg now."

"Good! Now take the two things we just did, put them together, and try to detect what's in front of you by releasing chakra from your nose. Don't worry, it'll spread out and you'll be able to detect it all."

"Here I go," Saki released her chakra and nearly immediately could simultaneously 'feel' her surroundings and 'see' and image of them in her head. The image was like a fuzzy black and white picture, only Suzume had more of a purplish tone to her. "I did it!"

"Good, now try to do it all around you instead of just in front of you."

"Okay," Once again Saki released her chakra, this time receiving a mental image of the clearing in all directions for about 10-15 meters, "Suzume-senpai, why are you purple?"

"Good question, when your chakra hits my body, it takes some of my chakra with it. To you, your chakra is gray because you're used to it. Mine seems gray to me, but purple to other peoples. Sensei's is red. Try and go find him now."

Saki started walking through the woods, knowing that her sensei wouldn't have gone too far out. Suzume decided to follow since she was the last one left. Suzume notice subtle hints that Saki was beginning to learn her environment and after a while stopped walking in circles. It took her about another hour, but eventually Saki found Hayabusa, Haruko, and Takuma. Hayabusa's chakra was red like Suzume had said, Haruko's was a dark green, and Takuma's was pink.

"Good job to the three of you! I'm actually impressed. This wasn't just a test for you though, it was a test for Suzume too." Hayabusa jumped down from the tree he was hiding in.

"Me? How was I being tested?"

"As a teacher. Since there will be times that these three will need your help I figured I should see how well you can teach. You didn't disappoint."

"But you told me not to teach them! I disobeyed sensei, shouldn't I be in trouble?"

"Sometimes disobeying orders is better for the success of the mission. You should know that from experience."

Saki raised her hand, "Uh sensei, may we take the blindfolds off now?"

"You could've took it off the second you found me."

"What was the real point of that training sensei? I know that it seems pretty helpful, but it's too inconvenient to use in an actual situation." Saki took her blindfold off and sat in the grass.

"Not exactly, right now it's not very practical, but eventually you three will be able to use it with your eyes open. The combination of sight and chakra detection enhances your ability to assess the situation, it'll be especially handy with your byakugan Saki, and your sharingan Haruko, once you activate it."

"So are we done for the day then sensei?"

"Yes, you're free to go home. Meet back at the training grounds tomorrow at 7."

* * *

**Later that evening, at the Uchiha residence...**

"So, how was your training today Haruko?" Sasuke asked his daughter.

"It was good. We learned how to see blinded."

"See blinded? I suppose it possible to do through chakra detection, but why would he teach you that? Seems impractical." Kenta said through a mouthful of food.

"Well, he's blind so I guess that's what he has to do most of the time."

"Blind?" Kenta paused, swallowing his food and contemplating something, "What's your sensei's name again kiddo?"

"Hayabusa. He's never told us a last name."

"He wouldn't have one, wandering shinobi abandon their birth-names, first and last, when they abandon their home. They take on a new name, in his case Hayabusa of Yami, but they never take on a new home. The camp is close, but from what I've heard it's not a home to them. They used to be called 'Bastard Shinobi' because they didn't fit in anywhere in normal society, so they made their own society."

"They are five camps, right son?"

"Right, but all I know are Yami, Kaji, and Itami. (Literally Dark Camp, Fire Camp, and Pain Camp.) Hayabusa of Yami... we learned about him. He's well-known for his kenjutsu, often taking an enemy down without even using ninjutsu or genjutsu. His explosive tags are particularly famous, I read that every major country has hired him at least once to blow something up in another country... chance are he's blown something both for and in the Fire Country."

"Wouldn't that make him a criminal Kenta-san?" Haruko asked.

"No, his contracts are secret, as are most wanderer contracts. As a mercenary, he's only an enemy of Konoha on the mission against Konoha, otherwise he's neutral."

"That's neat!"

"I'm sure you'll learn more about wanderers from him, afterall, that's the purpose of your special squad."

* * *

**At the training grounds...**

"How long has she been at it, sensei?"

"Ever since everyone else left."

"You think she knows we're still here?"

"Probably not, she's had the blindfold on almost the whole time. Her skill shouldn't be able to detect us this far out anyways."

Suzume and Hayabusa sat in the trees watching Saki training herself to use chakra detection. She would take the blindfold off and carve a target into the tree, then walk back several meters and put the blindfold back on. She then threw shuriken and kunai at the target trying to get in the bullseye, often getting close to the center. She cursed when she missed or when she walked too far back and couldn't sense the target anymore. She repeated this process over and over again.

"Suzume, go to the Hokage's office and give him the report. I'll keep an eye on her."

"Alright sensei."

Suzume left and Hayabusa sat and watched Saki training more. She kept repeating the exercise for over an hour. It was almost sunset when Hayabusa decided to put a stop to it.

"Hey, Saki."

"Sensei? You're still here?" Saki pulled her blindfold off.

"I've been here the whole time. It's about time you stop training and go home."

"I wanna be the best, that means I need to train more!"

"The best shinobi know when to quit training so they won't over-exert themselves and die."

"But I can still barely do the technique, I need to train a little longer."

"Why? You passed the test, we'll train more tomorrow."

"But I wanna get better than Haruko and Takuma! I wanna be better at this technique than you, sensei!"

Hayabusa laughed, "That's very easy for you to do. You see, I have to use this in battles to track my opponents, it's my only way to do so. However, you still have your eyes, so chakra detection enhances your other senses."

"I don't get it."

"Well, it's like hearing. You don't need to hear things as long as you can see them, but hearing things helps you process what you see. Chakra detection is the same way, it still paints the same picture just a little bit better."

"But you can do the technique all the time, right? I can't focus like that."

"Wrong, I rarely use chakra detection outside of a battle. It's a waste of chakra and wears your whole body out, you may not feel it now but you will tomorrow. You're going to be sore."

"Sensei, you once told me that what makes a shinobi truly great is defending who you love the most. Do you have someone you'd be willing to die for?"

"I'd be willing to die for Suzume in a second. She's like a daughter to me... I don't know what I'd do if I lost her too."

"Too? Did you lose someone else close to you sensei?"

"...I'll tell you another time, for now you should go home and rest. Your parents are probably waiting for you."

* * *

**Uchiha Residence...**

"You know, I'd actually like to go meet Hayabusa." Kenta said as he stood up and carried his plate over to the sink.

"I agree, he seems interesting... Would you mind if we walked with you to your training tomorrow Haruko?"

"No, that'd be fine. I bet sensei wants to meet you too, he seemed to know about you, brother."

"Really? I feel honored."

"You realize what that means, right Kenta?"

Kenta looked at Sasuke with a curious look on his face, implying that he didn't know.

"It means that you're in their bingo book, which means if you meet a wandering shinobi who's so inclined, they might try to kill you for your bounty."

"I can defend myself father, don't worry one bit."

* * *

**Later that evening, at Hayabusa and Suzume's apartment...**

"Suzume, can you do me a favor?"

"Yes sensei?"

"Describe our students to me... as you know chakra detection isn't very good with faces or colors or anything like that."

"Why the sudden interest sensei?"

"My conversation with Saki... I've just been wondering is all."

_ Haha, cold-hearted Hayabusa is starting to warm up to these three, I can tell._

"Well, I'll start with Saki first... She's not too pretty, but she's not really ugly either. Her hair is the same as her father's, you saw his pictures in the bingo book right?"

"Yes."

"Her eyes are white-pink, like all Hyuga's are."

"Okay, now Takuma."

"I've never seen his hair, since he always wears that bandana... his eyes are green. If you want my honest opinion, even though he's so young he's extremely cute... I can see why Saki likes him."

"Now Haruko please."

"She's pretty, she'll be beautiful once she's grown a little. Her hair and eyes are black, just like her father's."

"She can't possibly have her father's eyes."

"What do you mean?"

"I met her father once when both of us were younger... his eyes were filled with nothing but hatred. Even I can tell that Haruko's are filled with fear, fear of failure."

Suzume stared at her sensei for a moment before saying, "You're getting tired sensei, you should go to sleep."

"Yes, I suppose I should."

* * *

**A/N: Okay, that was a bit of a short chapter and wasn't very exciting at all. I'll have the next chapter up in the next couple of days, so don't worry. Anyways, thanks for reading and let me know what you think of the story / characters / my writing style / whatever so far in a review!**


	4. Kenta vs Hayabusa!

**I'll be honest, I'm not very fond of this chapter re-reading it (I wrote it several weeks ago). Unfortunately, there's no way for me to re-work it without changing the other several chapters I've written.**

* * *

Suzume looked at the clock, _4 a.m. and I still can't sleep!_ Bored, with nothing else to do, she got up and started walking around until she saw her sensei sleeping on the couch. There was only one bed, so Hayabusa decided to give it to Suzume. _Sensei, we've come a long way since that day..._

* * *

**Yami Camp, 5 years before...**

Two shinobi stood facing each other inside a fairly large tent. Both of them were in their mid-teens, one was Hayabusa only without his scarf or sunglasses. The other shinobi was slightly shorter than Hayabusa and was completely bald. Both wore skin-tight black training suits, wielding a katana. They sparred for several minutes, nearly equally matched until Hayabusa pulled several skillful parries and then knocked his opponent down, putting his sword to his opponents throat.

"You're a tough bastard at sparring Hayabusa-san, you know that?" the other shinobi said to Hayabusa.

"Of course, I did train with Mifune and the samurai, remember?" Hayabusa said as he changed back into his casual shirt and pants, putting his flack jacket back on finally.

"Yeah well, how 'bout giving me some of that training somet-" The other shinobi was interrupted by a scream from outside the tent.

"The hell?" Hayabusa rushed out of the tent and saw a large crowd gathered down the path. He and the other shinobi went down and pushed their way through the crowd, with almost everyone moving away instantly when they saw it was Hayabusa, "What's going on here?"

In the center of the circle was a middle-age man and a young girl. The man had his hand around the girl's wrist, clearly grasping it hard. Hayabusa looked at her, there were bruises all over her arms and she had a black eye that was clearly fresh.

"I'm taking this girl back home! She's my daughter and she ran away."

"I see, and why did she run away?"

"Cause he-" She started to speak but her father slapped her across the cheek and interrupted her.

"Cause she doesn't know when she's got it good. We're fine, just let us go."

"How did she get those bruises?"

"Huh?" The man started acting nervous, sweating and shifting, "Uh, the ones on her arms are from farm work... the black eye must be from one of you bastards."

Hayabusa stared at the man for a moment, before slashing him across his chest with the katana. The man let go of the girl and fell down on the ground. Hayabusa motioned for the girl to walk over towards him.

"I'm not stupid, I can recognize bruises from hitting and abuse. You clearly don't know how to treat a child right. Give me one good reason I should let you live." The man just stuttered in response and shielded his face, "Luckily for you, I don't like killing uselessly. Go back to your farm."

"NO!" Suddenly the girl grabbed Hayabusa's katana and started running over to her father, screaming, "I'm tired of you hurting me and making my life a living hell!"

"Shit!" Hayabusa ran and managed to stop her before she did anything, "Killing him isn't worth it little girl, trust me."

The girl dropped the katana to the ground and started tearing up. After a moment she dropped to her knees and started crying. Hayabusa picked her up and started walking away, turning his head back to look at her father.

"I recommend you leave before I get back."

"Right." The man stood up to leave, but the other shinobi wouldn't let him, "You heard the man! Let me leave!"

"Hayabusa-san might not like killing, but we sure do." One shinobi stepped forward brandishing a kunai.

Hayabusa carried the girl through the large campsite to a gray tent with a sign that said "Emi" on it outside the tent. The two went in and Hayabusa set the girl down on a medical examination table.

"If your father abused you I think you should get a physical examination. One of my closest friends will be doing it, don't worry, she's nice." Hayabusa sat down in a nearby chair, waiting for his friend to arrive.

"Are you a shinobi mister?"

"Yes, I am. I have been since I was about 6 years old. How old are you?"

"I'm 11. Is that too late to be a shinobi?"

"Not at all, I could even be your sensei." Hayabusa said which led to the girl giving a small smile in response.

"Why did I know this would be the first place you came to?" A woman, about Hayabusa's age, walked into the tent.

"Well, I figured you should look at her and see what we can do for her." Hayabusa motioned towards the girl, "After all, you're an expert at medicinal-ninjutsu Emi-chan."

Emi laughed, "I appreciate the flattery, but expert? Hardly. I'll see what I can do though. I'm gonna have to ask you to leave the tent."

"Why is that?"

Emi walked over to Hayabusa and whispered to him, "Well, during a full examination of a girl she'll have to get naked. Considering the last man to see her naked may have abused her, it's a good bet to assume she won't want one around now."

"Right, I'll leave." Hayabusa started walking towards the tent-flap.

"No! Don't leave me alone, please." The little girl hopped off the table and ran over to hug Hayabusa's legs.

_Hmm, she seems to have taken a liking to her savior. What have you gotten yourself into Hayabusa-kun?_

"Emi-chan?."

"If it makes her more comfortable, I'm fine with it."

Hayabusa and the girl walked over towards the table, with him putting her back up on the table. Emi walked over and helped the girl undress, leaving only her underwear on initially. She looked closely at the bruises and several cuts the girl had all over her body. Emi made a few marks on a paper nearby then examined the girl's mouth, ears, and eyes for any irregularities. Lastly, Emi checked the girl's personal areas and made a few more notes. After she was done, Emi told the girl she could get dressed while she and Hayabusa talked. Emi and Hayabusa then walked over to the other side and spoke in a whisper.

"Well?"

"Her father really did a number on her. Most of those bruises are recent, within a few weeks I'd say. Plus, there were several lacerations that healed up poorly or looked infected. Also..." Emi paused.

"What?"

"I think her father raped her."

Hayabusa didn't know what to say to that. Not wanting to say nothing, he said, "Well, all that's over for her now."

"Hayabusa-kun, where's she going to go?"

"She said she wants to be a shinobi, so I'm going to train her."

"You? You're just as much a sadist as her father was! I won't let you."

"Emi-chan, when I look at that girl I see a face that has both fear and hope: fear for the past and going back to it, and hope for a future that's better. When I look at her, I see a younger version of myself. I was once like that, fearful of the past and unsure of what to do until my sensei trained me. She needs this, I can feel it."

"Where's she going to live?"

"I guess with me, I don't mind."

"You hate children though."

"I'll learn to live with it."

"This is ridiculously unlike you, I can't believe it."

Hayabusa grabbed Emi's shoulder and turned her towards him, "Emi-chan, remember how I told you I don't know why I'm here? I felt like I had no specific goal or purpose? Well I think that maybe training this girl and being her father-figure is my purpose. Don't rob this from me... from her."

Emi sighed, "Alright, but I'm keeping a close eye on both of you, okay?"

"Thank you Emi-chan. I-" Hayabusa paused, hesitant to continue, "I love you."

"I know that." Emi kissed Hayabusa's cheek and walked over to the girl, "So what's your name? I just realized I don't know."

"My name is..."

"Wait! To be a shinobi in a wanderer camp you have to abandon your old name and your old home. You need a new name." Hayabusa stepped closer as he spoke.

"Do I have to?" The girl looked at Emi.

Emi frowned then sighed, "I'm afraid so. Do you have any ideas?"

"No, why don't you give me a new name?" the girl pointed at Hayabusa.

"Me?" Hayabusa paused a moment to think before saying, "Do like the name Suzume? It means sparrow, since you're going to be my student."

"Hayabusa-kun's name means falcon."

"Don't falcons eat sparrows?" the girl asked.

"Some do, but not all. Some sparrows will even build their nests by a falcon's nest because other predators won't approach the falcon's nest. In a round-about way, the falcon protects the sparrow."

"Will you protect me then?"

"Of course my little sparrow. From now on you'll be known as Suzume of Yami."

* * *

**Konohagakure, Modern Day...**

Suzume looked at a picure of her, Hayabusa, and Emi as she reminisced. _Emi-senpai's the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. It's still hard to believe she's dead._ Suzume started to cry. _I swear Emi-senpai, I'm going to find a jutsu to bring you back and things will go back to how they used to be... Hayabusa-sensei, you, and I will be like a family._

"Suzume? What are you doing up this early?" Hayato said groggily as he sat up on the couch.

"I couldn't sleep sensei, so I just came out here."

"Well go back and try to sleep, we have to meet the genin in 2 hours."

"Right, sorry sensei." Suzume started walking back to her room, but paused at the door, "Sensei? You know that it's ospreys right?"

"What?"

"Sparrows build their nests under osprey's nests, not falcons. You lied to me." Suzume said the last part in a sing-song tone so her sensei wouldn't think she was mad.

"I know that. Emi-chan told me after you went to sleep that night... go to sleep now, we can talk in the morning."

Suzume went back to her room, realizing that bringing up the past with Hayabusa was a mistake. Suzume loved Emi as a mother-figure but Hayabusa loved Emi as his soul-mate.

* * *

**The Next Morning, at the training grounds...**

"Hmm, it's 7:15 and neither Saki nor Haruko are here yet." Hayabusa said to Suzume.

"I'm sure they'll be here sensei, even if Saki doesn't want to be after all that training." Suzume looked at Takuma, "Why do you always wear that bandana?" Takuma just shrugged his shoulders in response.

"What are we doing today sensei?"

"That's for me to know, and you to find out once your teammates get here."

The three of them waited for about 10 more minutes before they saw Saki, Haruko, Sasuke, and Kenta approaching. _'Bout damn time they show up. Hmm, this should be interesting if they're coming too._ Hayabusa thought as he saw them.

"What the hell do you think you're doing coming this late? Sensei's time is precious?" Suzume yelled at Haruko and Saki.

"Sorry, we had to wait for Saki to wake up."

"And you say you want to be the best. The best is always on time!"

"That's enough Suzume, I'll punish them later." Hayabusa walked towards Sasuke and Kenta, "The Uchiha's I assume."

"That's right. I'm honored to meet the Blind Wanderer." Kenta then looked at Suzume and said, "My sister didn't say anything about a beautiful assistant-sensei though, Suzume was it?"

Suzume blushed in response and tried to hid her face, embarrassed. Kenta laughed and then looked back towards Hayabusa, who had ignored the comment about Suzume.

"I don't like nicknames, call me Hayabusa." He reached out to shake Kenta's hand, "And you, Sasuke right? I remember you from long ago."

"You do? I don't remember ever meeting you."

"I was just a child, you probably forgot. I'll remind you later. So what brings you two here with your daughter?"

"Well, I wanted to meet you, and also..." Kenta drew his katana, "I want to see how strong you really are."

"Hmm, I suppose we have time. I'll accept your challenge."

Hayabusa motioned for Suzume to step over with the students and Sasuke while he and Kenta prepared to spar. Hayabusa stretched, took another pill, and drew his katana out from under his trench coat. Kenta studied ever motion his opponent made, trying to get a handle on his movements and his gait as they got ready.

"Are you two ready?" Suzume asked. When both nodded their heads, she said, "Then start!"

The two of them shuffled and side-stepped, each waiting for the other to make a move. When it was clear neither would, Hayabusa charged at Kenta full speed. Kenta barely managed to notice in time to block the attack.

_He's fast! Must be partially because of that soldier pill he took._

Kenta was on the defensive as Hayabusa tried making several more strikes, barely managing to block any of them. After his third strike Hayabusa jumped back to make space between them. Kenta decided to use this opportunity to his advantage.

"Katon: Great Fireball!" Kenta said as he made the appropriate hand-signs.

A large flame engulfed the clearing, even singing some of the trees and getting close to the genin, Suzume, and Sasuke. When the flames cleared there was a black, hunched-over figure where Hayabusa had stood. Hayabusa stood up, completely unharmed.

"A few years ago Yami Camp had a war with Kaji Camp. I had my coat fire-proofed to fight their katon techniques. I'm surprised it lasted this long." Hayabusa started sprinting towards Kenta again, who readied himself against the attacks.

Hayabusa slashed at Kenta and managed to slice his arm barely. Kenta was surprised, as was Sasuke. Kenta then tried an offensive of his own to attack Hayabusa, but it was no use; he blocked every attempted strike. Determining that this was going nowhere Kenta jumped back and tried another fireball attack. Hayabusa draped himself in his trench coat again, coming out unscathed.

"Clever." Hayabusa said as he drew a kunai and threw it behind him, "But not clever enough!"

The kunai seemingly hit the tree initially, which then morphed to be Kenta. The Kenta from the tree made a hand-sign and other Kenta disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"You're good."

"You knew that the fireball wouldn't do anything, so it was obviously just a distraction. You also know that I use chakra detection to sense my opponents. You must have known that any sort of nature release jutsu disrupts chakra detection, so you thought it was the perfect chance to make a shadow clone to surprise attack me."

"How did you know that was a clone?"

"To be honest... I guessed. There's no way to tell the difference between a clone or the real thing with chakra detection. I got lucky."

"Even so, they say skill is half-luck itself. You're good Hayabusa, I don't think I can handle you with my skills right now." Kenta pulled the kunai out and continued, "I trust you to train my sister well. Don't disappoint me."

"I won't. You have my word."

"As for you," Kenta walked over to Suzume and took his mask off, "Maybe we could meet up later tonight?"

Suzume just blushed again and managed to stutter out a 'maybe'. Kenta and Sasuke started walking away. Once they were far enough that Hayabusa couldn't hear, Sasuke looked at his son with confusion.

"You have a lot more in you. You could take him I'm sure."

"That might be, but he didn't even use one jutsu father, remember? I'm not sure if I could defeat him."

"The katon rasengan could get him easily."

"If I could hit. Besides, there's no reason to reveal all my secrets on our first encounter."

"Another thing son..."

"Yes?"

"Don't flirt with the girl... she'll be gone once the Hokage dismisses them. It's pointless."

"Come on father, she's cute. Getting to know one of Haruko's senseis better couldn't hurt, right?"

* * *

"Alright, today we're going to train your chakra control by walking up trees. Suzume, if you'd demonstrate please." Hayabusa said to his students as Sasuke and Kenta left.

Suzume nodded her head and began to focus chakra to her feet. She then walked up the tree with ease and hung upside down from one of the higher branches. "Basically," she said to the students, "you focus chakra in your feet and walk up. Too much and you'll force yourself off, too little and you don't have a grip. Got it?"

The students nodded and started trying themselves. They tried for nearly half an hour before they started to get a good grip on how to do it. Once he felt they could continue training themselves, Hayabusa looked at Suzume and said, "I still need to train you, right? You three keep doing that and come to us once you've gotten to the top of the tree."

Hayabusa and Suzume walked towards the middle of the clearing. Suzume focused her chakra and placed her hand to the ground. "Summoning technique: Avian Summon!" A cloud of smoke appeared and once the cloud had clear a small sparrow stood where her hand had been. "Still just Kosuzume. Damnit sensei, I've been doing this for nearly a year and all I can summon is a sparrow!"

"Do it again." Hayabusa said to Suzume. He then turned to Kosuzume, the sparrow, and said something unintelligible. The bird disappeared in another cloud of smoke. "Now try, focus your chakra. You're an expert at chakra control, this shouldn't be hard for you."

Suzume took a calming breath before trying again. "Summoning technique: Avian Summon!" Another cloud of smoke; the same sparrow. "Damnit sensei! Maybe if I see you do it again I can get a better feel for it."

"Hmm, alright, maybe." Hayabusa said before, once again, saying something unintelligible to the sparrow. Hayabusa prepared to do the jutsu, but interrupted himself mid-motion to point behind Suzume. "Did you reach the top already Haruko?"

"Yes sensei. What is Suzume learning?"

"Summoning techniques. They're much too advanced for you three to perform I'm afraid. You can watch while I do it, however." Hayabusa once again prepared the jutsu and completed the motion, saying "Summoning technique: Avian Summon!" as his hand hit the ground. A large cloud of smoke appeared, and once it had cleared Hayabusa was standing on top of a large falcon, at least twice as large as a man. "Ookiihayabusa-sama, I've haven't summoned you in a while."

"Unfortunately it seems I won't get to do anything fun this time. Try not to summon me unless necessary Hayabusa-san."

"My deepest apologies." Hayabusa said as he jumped from the falcon. As Hayabusa landed the falcon disappeared in another cloud of smoke. "Now try again Suzume."

Once more Suzume tried her hand at summoning. She prepared her chakra, placed her hand to the ground, said "Summoning technique: Avian Summon!" and waited for the smoke to clear. Once it had cleared there was a normal sized falcon with brilliant golden feathers and a black beak. "That's an improvement, right sensei?"

Hayabusa let out a hardy laugh before saying, "It is a slight improvement, but I doubt that baka would be any help in combat though!"

"Who you calling baka, Hayabusa?" The falcon flew over and perched on his shoulder, "I've done plenty of scouting for strong shinobi. Saved a few of their lives at least."

"Akira-san, you haven't been summoned on purpose for nearly a century from what the elders tell me. Even still, it does take more for Suzume to summon you than it does for her to summon Kosuzume." Hayabusa ran his hand down the bird's back, ruffling its feathers.

"I still remember when you summoned me your first time, Hayabusa. You've grown so much."

"As will she. As for now, Akira-san, go home. With any luck we won't see you again for awhile." Akira nodded at Hayabusa in response and vanished.

The rest of the day Suzume spent trying to summon bigger birds, while the three students practiced chakra control. It was nearly night when Hayabusa decided to stop training. Before he sent them home, he treated them to ramen at Ichiraku first.

* * *

**That evening, at the Hokage's office...**

"This is an outrage Hokage-sama! You let these mercenaries in charge of our greatest rookies?" A member of the village council said, shortly followed by several murmurs of approval from other members.

"I did what was necessary. The day will come where we might have to fight these mercenaries, and it's best if we have insight into their world. Genin were the best choice for this. To understand the wanderers you have to forget everything you know about the shinobi world, something that chunin or jounin cannot do. I stand by my decision and am willing to take the blame if something happens."

"That won't change the fact that something happened! What if they're just inside men, waiting to take the village out?"

"We'll fight them then!" Naruto said, "But for now there's no proof for these accusations."

"Naruto-san, your child is in their care. You should be the most worried!"

"But I'm not, which means that you shouldn't be worried at all."

"You haven't even met them!"

"Neither have you." Sasuke said from the back of the room. He preferred not to get involved during these meeting usually, but felt an obligation to at the time, "But I have. I trust him with my daughter's safety. That should be enough for the rest of you."

"And why should we trust you? You left the village for three years!"

"That is enough!" Kakashi stood up as he yelled. "The decision is final, we'll keep an eye on them but its too late to find another jounin to take their place."

A shinobi from the table stood up, frustrated, "You're a fool Kakashi. You're going to destroy this entire village with your risky behavior! You let terrorists teach our genin!"

"They are not terrorists! They are mercenaries who have a perfect track record of completing their missions. No mercenary would jeopardize their perfect record just to attack a village. They have standards." Another shinobi in the back said.

The argument went on for hours. Both sides refused to step down from their positions. The shinobi for the wanders and the shinobi against the wanderers. Kakashi listened to both sides carefully, even though his mind was already set on keeping them. Eventually the side against the wanderers gave up and started to leave. Kakashi wasn't happy with the result of the argument even though his position won. The Hokage just hoped for the best and contemplated on the future of Konoha. He hoped that night would be the end of the argument.

* * *

**Thank you for reading! Please feel free to review and let me know what you think and what I could do better.**


	5. The Mission

**Several Months later...**

Team Hayabusa was walking back from their latest mission: Picking weeds out of a local woman's garden. Hayabusa and Suzume enjoyed the change of pace from their usual, violent, high-risk missions. The D-rank missions were relaxing and calm. Unfortunately their students didn't feel the same about them.

"I'm sick of these shitty missions sensei! Weeding people's gardens and searching for lost kitty-kats! We're shinobi, we should be fighting people!" Saki said while they walked. She was kicking a rock along the path to help relieve her boredom.

Suzume waited for Hayabusa to say something. When he didn't, she decided that she would answer Saki's complaint, "We'll do the missions the Hokage gives us. Besides... that kitty-kat was cute, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess it was." Saki shoved her hands into her pockets and slumped. "Still, I wanna do something kick-ass, something dangerous!"

"I feel the same... I became a shinobi to get inspiration for writing, you don't get inspiration by picking weeds." Takuma joined the conversation, jotting notes in his notebook all the while.

"You're only 12, Takuma, you're not going to write the great shinobi novel anytime soon. You'll have plenty of chances for inspiration: Missions, people, tragic events, even romance." Hayabusa said to calm his student. Suzume notice that when Hayabusa said romance, Saki looked at Takuma who was busy glancing at Haruko. Suzume laughed to herself and wondered how that little love triangle would get resolved.

"But if I have inspiration now, I can use it later sensei!"

"Why can't you two be more like Haruko, I don't hear her complaining."

Haruko looked up from the ground at her sensei and said, "Well... actually sensei, I'd like a more dangerous mission too." Haruko played with her hair as they walked along the path.

"...I'll see what I can do then."

They continued walking to the Mission Office, and once they arrived Kakashi handed them their payment, saying, "The report you received was excellent. Not a single plant was crushed and you got every weed. Now for your next mission..."

Saki interrupted Kakashi, "Hold on a minute! Don't give us a shitty one, Hokage-sama. Give us a good one, where we'll fight!"

Hayabusa slapped his student in response and apologized. "I'm sorry Hokage-sama. The students are just unruly because they've done 10 D-rank missions and no C-rank missions."

"Very well then, I'll give you a C-rank mission. You need to protect a merchant on his travels to the Land of Hot Springs. There should only be bandits along the road, you don't need to worry. The road isn't long and there probably won't be any bandits even, but just in case this merchant wants protection. Off you go."

"Yes! I love you Hokage-sama!" Saki turned and ran out the door, eager to go home and pack her supplies. The other members of Team Hayabusa followed shortly after and then met the merchant by the gate later that day

They traveled along the road, which took two days. Once they reach the border between the two countries, Hayabusa and his team bid the merchant farewell. He gave them a sealed envelope that would let the Hokage know of their success. Hayabusa put it in his bag and the group started traveling back. They traveled down the road while Hayabusa and Suzume told the story of a mission they had done together and eventually stopped to set up a camp.

"It's almost sunset, we should probably set the tents up now. If we leave early in the morning we should get to Konoha in time for dinner." Hayabusa said as he set his pack down and opened it.

"Sensei, will you take us for ramen to celebrate?" Saki threw her pack on the ground and sat on the log.

"I might," he replied, "But for now focus on setting your's and Haruko's tent up! I'll set up mine and Takuma's."

"Hey, how come Suzume gets her own tent?" Saki asked as she started unpacking the tent supplies.

"Because she and I are doing night watch so I don't want her to wake anyone up when she gets in. Besides, do you want her to squeeze in with you and Haruko?" Saki shook her head 'no' immediately, "That's what I thought."

As they set up the tents, Haruko and Takuma went for a walk together. Their campsite was right by a beautiful river near a waterfall. They walked silently for several seconds. Takuma looked around and jotted things in his notebook while Haruko played with her hair.

"Why did you follow me out here Haruko-chan?"

"I don't know. I just wanted to go for a walk, and I figured that if you were already going for one I'd go with you since it's safer than going alone and all. Am I taking away from your inspiration, Takuma-kun?"

"No. I was just curious is all."

"Oh." Haruko looked at the ground while they walked. They stopped in front of the river and sat down. Haruko desperately wanted to say something to Takuma, but everything she thought of sounded stupid. Takuma, on the other hand, was content with the silence and glad that Haruko was somebody who wouldn't talk all the time.

Little did the two of them know that they were being followed, with three shinobi staring at them from the trees. "So, these two were with _him_, right?"

"Right. I wonder what sort of contract he's doing that has three brats following him around."

"No idea, but whatever it is it's going to be cut short by us. Once we get Hayabusa and his sparrow's bounties we can live of them for life!"

"Everyone in Kaji camp will love us!"

"Shut up you two! You'll alert them. You two wait for my signal and attack, I'm going to go get Hayabusa and our friend will get his stupid sparrow. Got it?"

"Easy. These brats will be a piece of cake." With that, the third shinobi left the other two, who waited patiently for his mark.

Meanwhile at the campsite, Hayabusa, Saki, and Suzume had all finished setting up their tents. Hayabusa sat down to rest a bit, and swallowed another pill. A small bird flew down and landed on his shoulder, starting to whisper in his ear. Startled, Hayabusa leaped from his seat, looked at Suzume and said, "You take Saki and find the others. We've been followed."

"Damn, you're as good as they say." A voice from the trees said. Two shinobi jumped down from the foliage and landing in the clearing in front of Hayabusa. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you Hayabusa. I've wanted to ever since my comrade, Yaiba, came back in critical condition."

"Hmn, so that bastard actually survived sensei's explosive tag? That itself is enough to make him a legend." Suzume smiled as she drew a kunai from her pouch.

"Suzume, do as I told you. Find Takuma and Haruko, they're in danger! I can fight these freaks."

"Right, let's go Saki!" Suzume and Saki took off down the trail that they had seen Takuma and Haruko take earlier. The shinobi who had spoken to Hayabusa looked at the other, who nodded in response and took off after them.

"I can tell by your hitai-ates that you're wanderers... and since you're friends with Yaiba I can only assume you're from Kaji camp. If that's the case I know that you'll be unrelenting against me. Just be warned," Hayabusa paused as he drew his katana, "I'm unrelenting against every opponent."

Suzume looked back and saw that one of the shinobi was following them. Worried about Takuma and Haruko, she looked at Saki and said, "Saki, you go ahead and find the other two. Wanderers usually don't travel in groups larger than four when doing bounty hunting. That means that at most there are two shinobi there. Takuma and Haruko alone don't stand a chance, but with you they will. I'll hold this bitch off, okay?"

"Right Suzume-senpai!" Saki took off running faster while Suzume turned and jumped straight into her opponent with her kunai.

(Author's Note: From now on the three scenes of battle will be separated by lines to make transitions easier.)

* * *

**Hayabusa vs. Kaji Shikaku #1 (assassin)**

"So, now the question remains of your identity. You know mine, but what's yours?"

"That's completely unnecessary, since you'll be dead soon anyways. I'll amuse you anyways. You can just call me Kuro, that's all you'll need to know."

"Hmm, I've never heard of you, which means you're probably weaker than I am."

This made Kuro visibly upset. He started running towards Hayabusa while making several hand-signs, "Enough talk! Now we fight! Katon: Dragon's Rage!" A large, dragon shaped flame emerged from Kuro's mouth and started flying at Hayabusa with incredible speed. Hayabusa, assuming his cloak was still fire-proofed simply covered himself in it and crouched. He realized shortly after the large flames had passed, that the fire-proofing had worn off and his trench coat was on fire. He removed it, standing in front of his opponent once more.

"Nice move. It's my turn now." Hayabusa rushed at his opponent with his katana in a position to strike. Kuro saw this and jumped to dodge, but Hayabusa channeled his chakra through the blade, extending its range and curving it to strike Kuro's right arm.

"You truly are a master of the sword my friend. I can see the samurai's training paid off. Don't let that get to your head. I'm just beginning!"

* * *

**Suzume vs. Kaji Shikaku #2**

Suzume slammed into her opponent, who didn't expect her to turn around so suddenly, managing to scratch her arm with the kunai. Her opponent jumped back and regained her composure.

"So, I get to fight the legendary Sparrow Itamae? I should feel honored. And so you know the name of your killer, I'm Aka."

"Is that what they're calling me now? When we left the camp it was still just sparrow, oh well. I haven't had the chance to make anything recently, so I'm afraid you won't get to see my chemicals and their wonders."

"Your drugs are well known throughout all the camps. Supposedly you've made the strongest soldier pill known to man."

"I did, but it carried too many risks for convenient use so I stopped making it."

"Is that so? Isn't your sensei addicted to those pills Itamae?"

Suzume didn't answer and instead used her Body Split Jutsu to form two bodies. "It's two on one now, you still wanna fight?" Suzume didn't wait for her answer and instead both charged at her, one wielding a long chain and the other a katana. The one with the katana went to strike first, distracting Aka long enough for the second to wrap the chain around her. The second jumped back, still holding the chain, and sat down in a meditative stance. Chakra started channeling down the chain from Aka slowly. "I should really be more famous for my weapons, after all, my Chakra Absorption Chain is one of the strongest weapons ever forged in Yami Camp."

Aka started making hand signs. In response, katana Suzume looked down at her left arm. Quickly, Suzume began focusing her chakra to her left shoulder, where a tattoo began to glow as she did. Just as Aka released her fire jutsu at the meditating Suzume, the other Suzume released her water jutsu right in the fire's path.

"Can't have you disrupting my meditation, now can we?"

"How did you know?" Aka asked, her weakness showing in her voice. The chakra chain drained her chakra relatively fast and she was probably minutes from fainting if the same rate continued.

"It's easy," Suzume held up her left forearm, revealing a fading tattoo of a flame, "Whenever you prepare a jutsu one of my chakra tattoos appears correlating to type of jutsu you'll use. I can plan accordingly based off that."

"You damn Yami camp shinobi and your tattoos."

Suzume continued, seemingly ignoring Aka's comments, "Plus, with certain chakra tattoos I don't even need to make any hand-signs to use a jutsu." Suzume pulled her sleeve up revealing the fading glow on her shoulder tattoo. "Are you ready to die, Aka?"

* * *

**Genin Three vs. Kaji Shikaku #3 & #4**

"There's the flame. That's the signal right?"

"Right, let's get them!" The two shinobi jumped down and revealed themselves to Takuma and Haruko, who were both shocked. "Hello kids, I'm Ao, and this is Midori! We're here to kill you!"

"Or at the very least, scare you and let you live to tell the terrors of Kaji shinobi to everyone you know!" Ao and Midori looked like twins and neither Takuma nor Haruko could tell them apart. "Now then, let's begin the fun, shall we?" Both made a hand sign, and at least a hundred clones appeared around them and started jumping around, trading places.

"Keep an eye out for the real ones Haruko, these are just normal clones... not shadow clones. Their attacks can't get us." Takuma raised his fists and prepared for an attack from any direction, while keeping an eye out for any of the give-away signs of a the real bodies.

"Right!" Haruko drew a kunai and looked around, but was too nervous to actually notice anything.

After several attempted attacks on the two of them, Takuma got an idea, "Haruko, you know the Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu, right?"

"Right. I've got it, get down Takuma." Haruko drew several shuriken, knowing exactly what she needed to do. Once Takuma dropped himself to the ground, Haruko spun quickly using her chakra to accelerate her and released her shuriken in nearly every direction. She then made the proper hand-signs and released the jutsu which hit nearly every clone.

Takuma kept watch the whole time, and after the shuriken passed through the clones he jumped up and punched one of the real shinobi out of the circle of clones, causing his half of the clones to disappear.

"Nice move kid, mind if I ask how you did it?"

"It was easy, none of the clones dodged the shuriken, but you did because if it hit you it would've revealed your position. It was just a matter of focusing and find the one that dodged."

"Sharp eyes for someone without a kekkei genkai."

"I didn't use my eyes, I used chakra detection." Takuma tried hitting him again, but the shinobi blocked. "I'll handle this one Haruko, you get the other one!" Takuma kept throwing punches at the other shinobi.

"Strong for a kid your age, huh?"

"I get it from my mother." Takuma focused his chakra into his fist and punched the other shinobi clear across the river.

* * *

**Hayabusa vs. Kuro**

Hayabusa made several hand-signs as Kuro's vision started to fade.

"What is this? I'm blind!" Kuro focused on the sounds around him since he couldn't see. After a few more seconds his vision began to come back and he say Hayabusa rushing at him with a flaming katana. Kuro dodged, but was still cut a little bit on his shoulder. "That's a good genjutsu you have there. I actually thought I was blind for a moment."

"Thank you. I must admit that you broke it quicker than I anticipated. It's over for you now though."

"A katon katana? I doubt that's enough to kill me."

"Look again." Kuro examined the blade a bit closer but still only saw the flames. "Still don't see it? Around the flames is a layer of wind-based chakra. This is the combination of my Katon Katana and my Futon Katana techniques. The wind not only makes the flames stronger, but also makes cutting your flesh that much easier."

"Hmm, good technique. No wonder they call you a master of weapons. However, using fire against me was a mistake." Kuro made several more hand-signs and then made a pulling motion with his hand. The flames from Hayabusa's katana were ripped off and floated in the air as a sphere of fire. "Now witness the abilities of a true fire-master!" Kuro made another hand-sign and the flaming sphere began to grow in size until it covered the entire clearing, burning the tents and scorching the ground and trees. The sphere kept growing, going around Kuro so he wouldn't be injured. Hayabusa backed up several meters and then prepared several hand-signs. Once the flames got closer to him he released a strong, steady gust of wind from his lungs that pushed the flames aside. Once the sphere had gotten too large it extinguished itself, leaving the entire area black with ash.

"Is that your best shot?" Hayabusa stood up preparing his katana for another attack.

* * *

**Suzume vs. Aka**

"So, it's looking pretty much hopeless for you. Pretty soon I'll have absorbed all your chakra and you'll pass out long enough for me to kill you. I wonder how much your bounty is worth..." Suzume pulled out her new bingo book and started looking for Aka.

Meanwhile, Aka managed to move her hand to get a syringe out of her supply pouch and then injected it into her leg. A sudden surge of strength overcame her body as she broke free of the chain and jumped at Suzume while preparing a jutsu. The Suzume who had been meditating got up in response and blocked Aka's attack by stabbing her with a senbon.

"I thought you had to keep meditating!"

"Not once you've broken free of the chain, dumb-ass. It's impressive you did that anyways, even if you had to use one of _my _chemicals to do so." The Suzume who was reading put her bingo book up and continued, "As you may have noticed, you're paralyzed. That's the result of a fast-acting chemical I synthesized. It was on the senbon I stabbed you with. It'll give me just enough time to kill you." Both Suzumes grabbed Aka's neck and twisted it until it snapped. "That's better. Time to see if sensei needs help."

_Wait, maybe I should make sure that the three genin are okay._ Suzume thought to herself as her two bodies merged back together. _Alright, I'll go check them then I'll make sure that sensei's good. He can handle himself fine._

* * *

**Genin Three vs. Ao and Midori**

Seeing his brother launched across the river, Midori stopped moving and released the clones. He then put his hand to the ground as he yelled, "Summoning Technique!" A large puff of smoke engulfed his entire body.

_Summoning? Damnit this isn't good. Who knows what he's summoning!_ Takuma run back to Haruko and got back in a fighting stance. "Get ready Haruko-chan!"

Ao and Midori both jumped out of the smoke and attacked Takuma with kunai. He couldn't defend himself from two sides and was badly injured. Haruko froze up in fear, unsure of what to do. This was her first real fight and while she didn't want it to be her last either, she didn't know which move would be best to do. Ao and Midori knock Takuma down by the river-bank, unconscious, and then looked back at Haruko.

"Now that this brat's bleeding out, we'll take care of you. It should be easy since you just let him down like that." Ao and Midori jumped back up from the bank and stood across from Haruko.

Haruko shut her eyes and calmed herself. She briefly thought of how disappointed her father would be if she failed, and then of how proud Kenta would be if she succeeded. When Haruko opened her eyes, she saw the world differently. She saw the world through her sharingan.

"What? An Uchiha! No matter, you're still just a genin so we'll take care of you easily!" Ao and Midori started rushing at Haruko while making several hand-signs, "Suiton: Duo Whirlpool Strike!" Both of them jumped into the air while spitting water out of their mouths. The two jets of water moved close together and started revolving around each other, creating a large water-missile.

Haruko could easily see this with her sharingan and jumped to dodge. As she was dodging, she drew a kunai and threw it at Ao. Haruko made several hand-signs and said, "Kunai Shadow Clone Jutsu!" causing the kunai to multiply into ten. Ao dodged most, but was still struck by three of them.

"Are you alright Ao?"

"Yeah, she didn't hit any vitals. I'm surprised she moved that fast, must have to do with her sharingan." Ao stood up while pulling the kunai out of his body. "Ready to hit her again?"

"Hey you piece of shit! I'm not going to let you hurt my best friend!" Suzume emerged from the trees, standing confidently in front of her opponents, pulling her goggles down over her eyes.

"Saki! Takuma-kun's unconscious, we need to finish these guys quickly so we can help him!"

Saki jumped over towards Haruko and started whispering to her, "Haruko, you're long-ranged and I'm close-ranged. You distract one of them and I'll attack them with my gentle fist."

"Right."

"By the way congratulations on activating your sharingan!" Saki said as she made several hand-signs. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" A clone appeared right next to Saki. "You know what to do, right?"

The clone smirked and replied, "Of course! Byakugan!" Both Saki and her clone activated their byakugans and starting rushing towards Ao.

_These bastards wanna mess with Takuma-kun? I'll teach em a lesson._

_**Defeating these two will make you stronger, Saki. You must do it!**_

Ao prepared for the attack and shouted at his brother, "Midori, make sure that the other one doesn't try anything funny!"

Midori looked from Ao to Saki to Haruko. Haruko was still standing still and hadn't moved since her friend arrived. This made Midori uneasy since he wasn't sure what she was planning. Suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his back. He turned around to see a large Fuuma shuriken stabbed neatly between his ribcage and left shoulder blade. He turned back to see that Haruko was gone. Now more determined than ever to kill that little brat, he flipped around and faced where the shuriken came from. _She's hiding somewhere,_ he thought, _but where?_

Another sharp pain pulsed through Midori's body as the shuriken was pulled from it's spot, dislodging his left arm in the process. He traced the shuriken as it flew back to Haruko's location, over to the side.

"How? You were right there!"

"I just used an ordinary genjutsu clone. I didn't think you'd actually fall for it... it was just to buy some time for me to position myself to attack." Haruko's sharingan faded as she decided that it used too much chakra.

"An ordinary clone! How could I be so foolish? If I'm going out I'm taking you with me!" Picking his dislodged arm up with his other, making two hand-signs before spitting a massive wall of water from his mouth, "Suiton: Miniature Tsunami!" The wall of water moved too fast for Haruko to dodge, and hit her with an incredible force that sent her flying unconscious down to where Takuma was. Midori smiled as he passed out from blood-loss and over-exertion, happy he had defeated his opponent.

Saki witnessed it all while she was attacking Ao. Seeing her best friend slammed through the air put an eerie feeling over her. Saki released the clone technique and jumped back from Ao, looking at her feet.

"What's the matter? Does the baby want to cry over her friend?" Ao laughed, and started making the same hand-signs that Midori had before. "Suiton: Miniature Tsunami!"

Saki looked up at the wall of water coming at her. It was at least three times her height and just a wide and thick. For some reason Saki didn't try to dodge, instead she let out a ferocious cry and jumped straight at it, slicing through it with her bare hand.

"No way! That jutsu has enough force to demolish a brick wall! There's no way a child like her could do that with just her hands." Ao examined his opponent carefully, noticing that she had changed. Her eyes were a blood-red instead of whitish-pink they had been. Just looking into her eyes was also enough to incite true terror into Ao's heart. "Could this be? Is this the power of a demon?"

Saki attacked Ao, still using her Gentle Fist Style but with much more precision and speed than she had before. Saki managed to strike the chakra point right above his heart. Ao felt his heart's chambers burst and break inside his body before he collapsed and died. Suzume jumped down from the tree in time to grab Saki as she passed out.

* * *

**Hayabusa vs. Huro**

"You should know that even if you kill us Hayabusa, the worst is yet to come by far. There's an old friend who really wants to pay you a visit."

Hayabusa immediately knew who he meant, "What? Shou's still alive? Tell me what you know!" Hayabusa gripped his katana hilt tightly, frightened by this news.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk." Huro wagged his finger at Hayabusa with each tsk, "I wouldn't want to ruin too much of Shou-senpai's fun by spoiling his surprise visit. You deal with me right now."

Hayabusa sprinted at Huro, but swung his katana long before he should have. Huro took the bluff and stood in the same place, not noticing that Hayabusa was extending his katana range with his chakra. Huro noticed just in time to doge the attack entirely.

_That was close! I've stalled long enough, he should be just about ready now._ Huro laughed to himself as he regained his composure.

"What's so funny?"

"This!" Huro lifted up a pouch he had sliced off Hayabusa's jacket during the first assault.

"My soldier pills! You bastard!"

"It should be about time that you need one right now, am I correct?"

Hayabusa didn't answer, assuming that the shaking of his hands would suffice to show that he was starting to suffer withdrawal effects.

"The infamous Yami Soldier Pills! They open up your chakra channels and make replenishing chakra much easier while you're under their influence, but once it wears off your internal chakra systems are damaged. With as many as you've taken, you probably can't even walk without them anymore." Huro looked at Hayabusa for a response.

"That's correct. They're dangerous and forbidden in Yami now. Only I'm allowed to use them."

"Isn't that because once you're addicted the withdrawal effects will kill you within two hours?" Huro laughed again, not seeing any way he could lose this fight.

"That's correct. There's no way to break the addiction effectively, so I must continue to take them." Hayabusa sheathed his katana, knowing that there was no way that he could fight his opponent in this state. "I want to kill you right now!"

"I've brought Hayabusa to death threats! The bingo book says that you avoid killing unless its absolutely necessary, and here you are wishing I was dead! How you've fallen!"

Hayabusa breathing started getting noticeably heavier, but Huro thought it was part of the withdrawal effects. When Hayabusa lifted his face up, Huro noticed that his skin was much more gray, and that Hayabusa had two horns forming at his hairline. "You don't know half of me!"

Just then, Suzume and Haruko arrived, carrying Saki and Takuma. Suzume knew a little medicinal jutsu and managed to heal Takuma's main wounds. It was entirely luck that Haruko woke up to carry Saki.

"Shit, it's happening again!" Suzume stepped back once she saw her sensei's appearance.

"He looks like Juugo-senpai does when he goes on a rampage." Haruko stepped back also, knowing how dangerous this could be.

Hayabusa started running towards Huro. He felt no control over his actions. To him, it felt as though someone were else were controlling him. Hayabusa's mind faded slowly until he blacked out entirely.

* * *

**Meanwhile, at the Hokage's office...**

"So, it's that time again. The Chunin exams." Kakashi sat at his desk, looking at the various representatives of other villages. "In several weeks, genin from all of our nations will come to Konoha to prove their prowess and try to advance to the rank of chunin. The exam protocol will be the standard practices that Konoha has done for it's past exams. Ebisu-san, if you would."

Ebisu stood up and handed packets out to all the representatives. "The first examination is a written exam that will test a shinobi's abilities to gather information discretely. The proctor will be Nara Shikamaru The second examination is a survival test in the Forest of Death. Each team will receive a scroll, heaven or earth, and will have to..."

"We know, Ebisu-san, this was the same exam for all of us to become chunin." Temari said, shortly followed by approval from the other ambassadors.

"Very well, the proctor will be Hyuga Neji. The final examination will be a standard tournament, with single elimination. The proctor will be Aburama Shino. There is no cap on how many shinobi each village may enter, but they must be entered in teams of three.

"Well now, isn't that unfair to us?" A man stepped forward from the shadows, brandishing a blank headband and wearing a sash with kanji for dark (Yami) printed on it. He was an older man, at least in his late 50s but looked like he could handle a fight. "Come to think of it, it was a little rude not to invite us, don't you think?"

"How did you get in here?" Ebisu drew a kunai, ready for an attack.

"Relax Ebisu, he has no reason to kill me. You were saying..."

"Yami Camp would like to participate in these chunin exams, if the other villages won't mind."

One of the ambassadors stepped forward, "Why the hell should we let you take part? You've been content to do your own thing and we've been content to let you, why change it?"

"In part, because he," the man pointed at Kakashi, "Already has. Kakashi, you hiring Hayabusa-san is the first instance of a village hiring a wanderer publicly. You've changed the rules of the game now, and we want to play. Besides, if your shinobi can best ours maybe you'll get back some of the jobs we've taken from you."

"Hmm, I have no objection but I think that the other Kages and village leaders need to decide."

"Take your time, we'll be waiting. When you're ready to answer, Yami Camp is currently in the Land of Rivers." The man faded away, revealing that he was just a form of clone.

"Take this news back to your superiors and see what they want to do about it. Rest assured that if they agree, ANBU security will be beefed up for the events." Kakashi stood up and formally excused the ambassadors.

* * *

**Konoha's Hospital, several days later...**

Hayabusa came to in a hospital bed. He immediately sat up and asked, "Who did I kill?" not even knowing who, if anyone was in the room.

"Relax, you killed your opponent."

"Sasuke? Why are you here?"

"I had a friend who wants to meet you, his name is Juugo."

"Hello Hayabusa. You and I are very similar, which leads me to my request... tell me about that ability, the transformation Haruko described, to me."

"Why should I?"

"Because, I suffer the same curse. It's from my clan's bloodline."

"Well then, I guess you're entitled to the whole story. But to tell you that, I need to start back when I was born..."

Suzume opened the door, happy to see that her sensei was still alive. The hospital had taken off his scarf, revealing the two chakra tattoos on his cheeks (one on each cheek). On his left was the kanji for Death, on his right was the kanji for Rebirth. Suzume knew that these were chakra tattoos intended for jutsu, but had never seen either of the jutsu. Hayabusa had always told her that they were 'experimental' and were still being perfected.

"Sensei! You don't know how relieved I am to see you!" A small smile crept up Suzume's cheeks as she walked over to her sensei to give him a hug.

"You should know better than to worry about me. I'll always be there to protect my sparrow." Hayabusa hugged Suzume for several seconds before pointing towards Sasuke and Juugo, "Suzume, you remember Uchiha Sasuke, right?"

"Yes sensei."

"This is Juugo, I assume he's a friend of Sasuke's. We were about to have an important conversation, I'll catch up with you later. For now you have to look after the three genin, okay?"

Suzume nodded and walked out of the room, pulling the door shut behind her.

"Where was I? Oh, I remember now. I have to start at the very beginning..."

* * *

_My parents were poor rice famers in the Land of Rivers. They had little to their name besides their paddies, their shack, and their few possessions. When my mother discovered that she was pregnant, they desperately wanted a daughter; a beautiful daughter who would marry up in class, so that they could retire and live decently from the wedding dowry. Every furniture, piece of clothing, and toy they bought were made for girls. They even went so far as to legally name me before my birth: Izu, a girl's name. When what came out was a boy they were... disappointed to say the least._

_My father assumed that I could help around the farm once I was older, so they didn't think it was a complete loss. Unfortunately, I wasn't a normal child. I had a strange obsession with death. I'd kill bugs, rats, birds, anything almost. My parents didn't think much of it at first._

_We had a dog that I loved, though I can't remember the rascal's name. Me and this dog went everywhere together, and I couldn't dream of killing it even with my obsession. One day, however, the dog fell ill. Eventually it died. My father and mother cried as we buried it, but I didn't feel anything. I knew that I should, but I didn't. That feeling disgusted me. I started naming things and caring for them before I killed them, to see if I'd feel sad or cry for them but I never did. Driven to the brink of madness from it all, one night when I was only three I killed my parents in their sleep. I didn't even cry for them._

_The villagers nearby called me a monster and locked me in the house, feeding me twice a day. Maybe I was a monster, I don't like to think about my childhood too much. I stayed locked in my house for nearly a year before a shinobi came and broke in. His name was Orochimaru I think. There was another shinobi named Kabuto... and you Sasuke. I distinctively remember you, because the desire to kill that I saw in your eyes was how I felt on the inside._

_Kabuto said that he was experimenting with a procedure that might be able to cure me. He put me under, and when I woke up I no longer had a fascination with death. A wave of emotion washed over me as I slowly realized what I had done; regret, sadness, frustration, guilt. All the things I should've felt when I killed my parents came then, nearly a year after. I cried for an hour straight, but even though I cried I was happy in a way... happy that I was normal._

_Kabuto considered the operation a success, initially. After a few days of observing my behavior, however, it was deemed a failure. My urge to murder, my obsession with killing simply devolved into an obsession with pain. It didn't matter who's pain, mine, your's , some one I never met. I relished in inflicting pain on anyone and anything. You three left shortly after that, leaving me alone once again. I managed to break out of the prison that once was my home, and wandered through the land, unsure of my purpose._

* * *

"That must've been the operation Kabuto told me about once. He never brought it up again though. Now I know why."

"I think I remember you, the strange red-haired little boy. That doesn't explain why you started transforming though. Did Orochimaru give you a curse seal?"

"No, there's still more..."

* * *

_After wandering for nearly a week I was close to death. That's when Washi-sensei found me. I was a small, frail husk of a boy and he was a giant of a man. He looked a lot like you, Juugo-san. He looked at me and said, "It's dangerous for a young boy such as yourself to travel alone." I was too afraid to reply. He picked me up and took me back to the camp, where he fed me, clothed me and gave me a warm home._

_One night, I asked him to train me to become a shinobi like him. He asked me why, and I said, "To save lost souls like myself." So he agreed to teach me. He trained me for 8 years before I was considered to be Jounin rank at 12. He was proud of me, and wanted to give me a gift before I left to train in the Land of Iron. The gift was some of his blood, for two reasons: 1. So I could communicate secretly with the birds he trained me to summon, and 2. So he could protect me where ever I went._

_Washi-sensei was prone to randomly breaking out in fits of anger and bloodlust. People said that I was the only person who could calm him when he did. Once I got his blood I began having those same random transformations, but it isn't me when I transform... it's someone else's will entirely._

* * *

"Hayabusa, I think that your sensei was a member of my clan. I too am prone to random desire to kill, but what calms me is Sasuke. That's why Konoha allowed me to remain in the village, even though I'm a former criminal. I never wanted that life, and Sasuke can keep me calm and away from it. I'm curious though, is your sensei still alive?"

"I'm afraid I don't know. While I was traveling in the Land of Iron he left Yami Camp and never returned." Hayabusa paused. "I guess that I'm a member of your clan by proxy since his blood pumps through my veins."

Juugo chuckled, then said, "I guess so. For all I know we may be the only survivors. Though maybe by dying with no legacy we'd be doing the world a favor; by dying with no legacy we'd remove this curse from the world of innocents."

* * *

**A/N:** I don't have much to say after this chapter, other than I'm sorry for not updating sooner!


	6. Chunin Exams

"Hey sensei, wake up! You'll never guess who's here!" Hayabusa felt Suzume poke him out of his restful sleep in an extremely cheery sing-song tone.

"Whoever it is, they can wait until it's a reasonable hour!" Hayabusa slammed his head back down on the pillow and instinctively closed his eyelids shut, despite the fact there were no longer eyes to shut over.

"Even for me?" Hayabusa would've recognized that voice anywhere the instant he heard it.

"What the hell are you doing here, Masuku?" Hayabusa shot up out of the couch, excited to meet an old friend, "Mission bring you here?"

"Hell no! You haven't heard? Yami's participating in the village's chunin exams this year! I came to watch my student kick some ass." Masuku, named so because of his _peculiar _fighting style, smiled and laughed as he hugged his old friend. At the mention of chunin exams, however, he notice Hayabusa froze up.

"Yami shinobi will be in the chunin exams?" Hayabusa broke the friendly hug and sat back down. Suzume immediately knew what was on his mind: There was no way those three brats of theirs would stand a chance against Yami genin.

"Well, there's a limit from what I've heard. They're adding one wanderer to every village genin team to balance us out. It sounds fair to me." Masuku spoke with a casual, yet somber tone.

"I'm going to have to go talk to the Hokage about this. In the mean time, what do you say Suzume introduces you to our genin team and then you show them around the camp. I know it won't come close to the entire camp, but I'm sure tha-"

Masuku cut Hayabusa off before he could go on, "It _is_ the entire camp Hayabusa... All of us. This is history! People wanted to watch the exams."

Hayabusa absorbed this new information, then just sighed and shook his head, "Somebody's gonna start trouble."

**Later that day, at the Hokage's office...**

Kakashi looked at the clock impatiently while he waited for the last Jounin to arrive. _So this is what it feels like... huh._ He thought to himself. Suddenly the door to his office opened and everyone looked up.

"Hokage-sama, I need to talk to you about something!" Hayabusa stepped in, evidently not noticing the crowd of Jounin around the Hokage's desk.

"Hayabusa-san, how nice of you to show up to my summons. There will be time to talk after the debriefing."

Hayabusa looked and sounded confused, "Summons?"

"Yes, to discuss the chunin exams. You did receive it right?"

Hayabusa thought for a moment, remember that a few nights before an ANBU had came by delivering a letter he called, "very important" but Hayabusa never recalled opening said letter.

"Of course, I just didn't expect so many shinobi," Hayabusa was talking out of his ass and it showed, "I figured there'd be the one-on-one treatment, you know?"

Kakashi sighed and let the matter drop, eager to finish this meeting. "Now then, you all know why you're here... the chunin exams will be taking place in a week. I'm sure you've heard the news, and seen the strange shinobi walking around," Hayabusa felt singled out by the use of _strange_ but didn't protest, "and it's all true. Yami Camp will be participating in the chunin exams with the villages. Your three man squad will be randomly assigned a wandering shinobi to tag along. Your team will get to meet their wanderer today since I'm sure your team will want to learn some things about them." When Kakashi mentioned the randomly assigned shinobi, he looked at Hayabusa and winked to indicate that things might not be so random for Suzume. Kakashi's gesture didn't have its desired effect, considering Hayabusa couldn't see it.

Ebisu stepped in front of the desk, clipboard in hand. "Right, first up is the rookie teams. Team Hayabusa?"

Hayabusa hesitated, still unsure if he should send his student up against the torrent of wanderer's skills. The additional shinobi reassured him, especially since none of the genin would try any dumb shit with Hayabusa's team. After a moment or so of musing, Hayabusa had his answer. "I recommend that all three of my students take the chunin exam!"

"And Suzume-san?" Kakashi asked, "What of her?"

Hayabusa was surprised. He didn't think that Suzume was ready to be called a chunin, at least by camp standards (which were much higher than village standards, since wandering chunin were usually sent on A-rank missions alone often) but figured that Suzume would be a _huge _help to the other three if they were on the same team. "I suppose so."

"Kakashi-sensei, I don't think Saki-chan's ready for it yet." Naruto stepped forward, voicing his concerns rather loudly. Kakashi responded merely by motioning Naruto back into the crowd.

"Konohamaru-san?" Ebisu continued.

"They're ready."

"Kurenai-san?"

Most were surprised that Kurenai was still teaching genin as old as she was, but there she stood ready to recommend her fourth team to become chunin... she couldn't help but feel old, "I recommend my team as well."

"Naruto-sama?"

"Yeah, they're ready this time."

Ebisu continued going down the list. Hayabusa counted seven teams including his, which meant seven wanderers. If every major village did those same numbers, that would mean thirty-some wanderers. Factor in the minor villages with fewer teams... there were probably almost fifty wanderers taking part. Last time Hayabusa had been in the camp, that was most of the genin. These numbers worried him a bit, but not too much. After all, if he worried too much about his students what did that say on him as a teacher?

**Outside Konohagakure, Yami Camp...**

"As you can clearly see, the camps are made entirely out of simple, gray tents. The tents allow for mobility, since they aren't too large, and make packing up fairly quick in case of emergencies." Suzume lectured the students as they walked down a make-shift street between rows of tents. Granted, she didn't like showing off her former-camp like it was a tourist attraction, but she could tell the students were a little bit amazed by it all. Haruko focused on Suzume, listening to the lesson in full. Saki looked around instead, tuning Suzume's voice to background noise. Takuma listened while taking notes and occasionally glanced out. _Must think it's good material..._ Suzume smiled to herself.

"Hey, your Itamae right? You haven't been to the camp in years! Is Hayabusa-sama here too?" A small boy ran up to Suzume, jumping up and down with a look of enchantment on his face.

Suzume laughed and rubbed his hair, "Not now, he's still in the village taking care of adult-stuff." The boy ran off and Suzume turned to her team, "In fact we should probably go back to the village now. I've shown you pretty much everything," _At least, everything I'd show to kids your age_ she thought to herself. "And besides, if sensei needs to talk to us he's not going to come into the camp."

"Why not?" asked Saki, "Isn't this like is home afterall?"

"It's not home. None of us have homes, and we certainly have more dignity than to call the camp home. You take home for granted, most wandering shinobi spend their whole lives looking for a place to call home." Suzume paused, sensing the awkwardness her student were emitting. "But to answer your question... Sensei's exiled at the moment." Suzume purposefully didn't mention that it was a self-imposed exile, or what it was for.

"What'd he do?"

"None of your business, okay? Let's just go back now."

The four of them got no more than ten steps before Saki had another question, "Suzume-senpai, why did that boy call you Itamae? Were you like the camp's chef or something?"

"Hell no! I can't cook food worth shit! I'm called Itamae because I'm good at cooking something else." Suzume hoped the three would catch the euphemism and she wouldn't have to go into detail. While cooking drugs was good, paying work and had made her famous among the camps, Suzume always felt ashamed that she did it. It wasn't even that they were society-wrecking drugs; they were usually intended for battle or had no recreational purpose at all. Even still, it was a talent of her's she preferred not to talk about.

"What?"

Suzume had forgotten that subtly is lost on Saki. Sighing, Suzume explained, "I cooked drugs. I synthesized new formulas, chemicals, compounds... battle supplements, soldier pills, stimulants, analgesics*, blood thickeners, nootropics*, appetite suppressants, chakra replenishing chems... Hell, I made everything a shinobi would need pretty much! You can still find knock-offs of chemicals _I_ first synthesized in the stores in Konoha even. That's how big I was."

"Wow, that's cool! Can you teach me?"

"Villages don't use drugs as much as camps do. Sure there's the occasional soldier pill and of course there's medicine, but nothing much else than that. I doubt Konoha would want a full time drug-chef."

As they left the camp and approached the gates of Konoha, Hayabusa was waiting for them. In his hands were four slips of paper, which he handed out as he said, "I've recommended all of you for the chunin exams in a week. The Hokage told me that he would ensure that Suzume is assigned to your team."

The three genin exploded with excitement and disbelief. _They _were good enough to take the chunin exams? It seemed unreal. Suzume, on the other hand, looked at the slip with a confused look on her face.

"I thought you said you didn't want me to become a chunin just yet sensei?" In the camps, chunin are promoted by their sensei and no one else. This meant that most sensei's would be absolutely certain in their student's abilities to survive alone before promoting them. Hayabusa had always said that Suzume wasn't ready yet.

"When I said you weren't ready... I meant I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready to risk losing you, but now I think you can handle it. Besides, with an actual exam to take you can gauge your skills better."

Suzume smiled at her sensei as she folded the paper slip and put it away. She then looked at the three genin who were still celebrating their accomplishments right in the middle of the street, much to the confusion of those walking by.

Hayabusa noticed their jovial reactions and spoke up, "Hey, don't celebrate yet. You still have a week to go, and I'm going to train you to make sure that you're ready!" The three genin slumped down in disappointment and Suzume chuckled as they walked towards the training grounds. He then turned to Suzume and said, "What's so funny? You're training with them."

Once they walked to the training grounds, which luckily weren't filled with wanderer tents, Hayabusa summoned his weapons bag, a man-sized falcon, and a larger-than-average sparrow. He pointed to Takuma and said, "Your strength, bandana-boy, is physical. You're the squad's frontman, it's heavy-hitter. You're problem, I've noticed during sparring, is your endurance. You can strike strong a few few times but you hit your wall fairly fast. That's why you're going to be doing laps."

"Is that it?" Takuma thought that seemed like an easy enough exercise.

"Carrying this." Hayabusa pointed to his weapons bag. "This is my and Suzume's entire weapon collection, weighing more than twice I do. You have the strength to carry it, but you need to work on how long you can."

Takuma walked over and picked the bag up, roughly three times his size, and put it on his shoulders. Then, taking a deep breath he set off jogging. Hayabusa whispered to the falcon, which then started following Takuma from the sky.

"You," he pointed to Haruko, "Are a long-distance fighter. You're strength lies in shuriken. For now, you're going to be doing target practice with our sparrow friend here." The sparrow, clearly nervous at the thought of sharp projectiles being thrown at it, nodded. "Don't worry about hurting him, he's going to be using shadow clones instead of himself."

The sparrow then made several clones, which all flew up into the air until they were barely more than tiny dots. Haruko looked upset at her puny moving targets, knowing that this was more difficult that she initially thought it would be. Haruko grabbed several shuriken and started launching them up in the air, aiming at her targets. In her first volley she hit one out of ten clones.

"What about me sensei? What do I get to do!?" Saki looked at her companions doing their difficult training exercise and then at her sensei, eager to do something hard and challenging.

"You'll be doing chakra control training." Haybusa could sense the eager aura around Saki drop immediately and morph to disappointment.

"I already did that shit though!"

"Not exactly. You practiced on trees and you barely did that adequately. This time you'll be going on water." Hayabusa then proceeded to show Saki how to balance herself on the water, and then let her try it. Saki sunk immediately. "Try it again, I need to train Suzume."

"More summoning sensei?"

"Not today Suzume. Today we'll be practicing you're senbon techniques with a body split." Hayabusa made a hand-sign and his body split into two seperate Hayabusas, just as Suzume had done before. One of the Hayabusa went to watch Saki train, while the other instructed Suzume where to aim and what to disable.

Training went on like that for the rest of the week. By the end of the fifth day Takuma had learned to use chakra to enhance his endurance, same as he did with his strength, to complete two laps around Konoha's outer wall carrying the hefty bag. Hayabusa told him to rest the next two days to regain his stamina some. Saki managed to get a handle on her chakra control and cross the creek by the end of the third day. After that Hayabusa instructed her to spar with her shadow clones, using the Gentle Fist Style. Haruko excelled at her shuriken practice and was essentially done by the second day. Hayabusa then decided it was time she learned some "real" genjutsu and trained her to use a blinding genjutsu. After the seven days had passed, the four-man team walked together into the waiting room for the 1st portion. Hayabusa's last words to them were, "Don't trust anybody... It doesn't matter if they're headband has a leaf, a hourglass, stones, clouds, or nothing on it. They're all your competitors right now, and they'll use any weaknesses they can find."

**Inside the waiting room...**

Haruko looked around her. She and Saki were almost certainly the youngest shinobi there, except for a select few, but most looked like they were Kenta's age. She walked into the room expecting the wanderers to be the scariest, but quickly found out that every village had scary looking shinobi. She looked into many of the shinobi's eyes only to see cruelty and heartlessness. Her only response was to silently play with her hair.

Saki placed her hand on her friend's shoulder, "Don't be nervous, Haruko! We're top of our class remember? We're gonna kick all these guys asses!" The last part attracted the attention of a group of wanderers. It seemed that even though they were assigned to other teams they still were socializing in their normal circles.

The largest of these wanderers was about 17 and stood at nearly 213 cm (~7 feet), towering over the smaller genin. His muscles bulged and pressed the sleeves of his shirt tight. Suzume stepped forward to meet him, recognizing him immediately.

"You better shut that brat of your's up Suzume, before I shut her up for you!" The man smiled as he spoke, stretching the scar on his upper lip out wider.

"You'll have to get through me first! I know you don't wanna fuck with me or Hayabusa-sensei, so why don't you and your dumb ass friends go back to your circle jerk." The three genin looked shocked; this was a side of Suzume that they'd never seen and was more reminiscent of Saki instead.

The man spit at the ground before saying, "Hayabusa! That man is trash, just as you and your brats there are. The rest of the camp will be grateful once both of you are dead." Suddenly the man froze up as he felt a blade pressing against his neck. He turned slightly to see another wanderer, not one of his friends, in the middle of the group. "Hmn, this doesn't concern you Garasu! Leave now."

"This does concern me. You've insulted Hayabusa-senpai and Suzume-chan. I can't allow such disrespect to stand." The other wanderer was much shorter, about 175 cm (5 foot, 9 inches), with short brown hair. His face was smooth, and didn't seem very masculine, and had wire-framed eyeglasses over his blue eyes. His hitai-ate was tied around his forehead, like normal. He wore a gray turtleneck sweater, with a bandolier with various scrolls and weapons attached to it.

"You wouldn't wanna cause any trouble here, Garasu. Put the tanto away. I'll leave."

Garasu hesitated, but then complied. He immediately regretted this decision as the other shinobi made a dash towards Suzume with his fist raised to strike her. The shinobi brought his fist down, and even though Suzume didn't flinch Garasu closed his eyes shut. When he opened them he saw the boy from Suzume's team holding the wanderer's fist back with relative ease.

"This isn't the time to fight. Focus on getting to the other rounds then you can fight Suzume-senpai." Takuma let go of the other shinobi's fist when he no longer felt pressure.

Garasu walked over towards Suzume and kissed her hand. "It's been awhile Suzume-chan. How have you been?"

"I've been good Garasu-san, but that was really a stupid thing you just did. I had it under control... that freak wouldn't have done hardly anything to me."

"She's right, despite his intimidating appearance his strength left little to be desired. He seemed like a punk." Takuma stretched his hand out then put it back in his jacket pocket.

"He is, but don't be fooled. He is extremely strong." Garasu looked at Suzume's team. They seemed competent enough, but he doubted that they would hold their own for long.

Suzume walked towards Garasu a little bit and asked, "Garasu-san, is Data here?"

"Data? Of course, he wouldn't miss an opportunity like this for the world. He's over here." Garasu started walking, and the Hayabusa Four followed closely.

The Data they were referring to was so named because of his obsession and skill with collecting information on other shinobi. For this reason him and his sensei, Masuku, were often employed by Yami camp to collect information for their bingo book. This involved either: A) Masuku fighting their opponent to coax their jutsu and abilities out while Data observed; or B) Data and Masuku shadowing a shinobi during their fight to collect information. While Data didn't particularly care about his ranking, he would no doubt show up for the chunin exams to gather information on future assassination targets.

Garasu led them to a short, dark-haired, pale boy sitting on the floor with a stack of cards in front of him. "Suzume-senpai! It's great to see you. I assume you want information on the best that's here, right?"

"You guessed right. I want the top three from Yami, and the top two from every other village."

Data shook his finger while making tch sound, "Information's not free, even you know this. I want some of your famous nootropics! The first test is a written exam, and I want to be well prepared. Four will be enough for my team."

Suzume sighed, reaching into her pouch and pulling out four small red tablets, "Here. Show me the cards."

Data nodded and drew the three wanderer cards first, "Arguably the best of Yami would be you, Suzume-senpai, but Renga's close" The first card lit up, showing the large shinobi who confronted them earlier, "He's a 4 out of 5 in taijutsu, a 2.5 out of 5 at ninjutsu, a 1 at genjutsu, a 2 at kenjutsu** a 3 intelligence, 4.5 in strength, 2 in speed, 2 in stamina." Data lit the next card up, "Next is Suzume-senpai, while I'm sure you know you're own abilities here they are..."

Over the next few minutes Data showed Suzume and her companions the numerous cards he had, occasionally asking for more payment in the form of soldier pills to be used later. Once they had taken notes on all the shinobi he showed them, Data put his cards back up and waited for someone else to come and ask for him. Team Hayabusa said goodbye to Garasu and walked back over to their original spot.

"Here, take these now." Suzume handed out more of the red tablets from before, "They make critical thinking easier and memory recall easier. It'll help during the exam." Suzume swallowed hers, shortly followed by the other three.

After a few more minutes they heard a bell ring in the front and were escorted to separate seats by the proctors. The main proctor stood up in front of the large crowd of Genin and looked them over. He was an average-sized man, with a spiky black ponytail. The expression on his face showed that he didn't want to be there much, but it was evident now he had no other choice.

The proctor sighed before saying, "My name is Nara Shikamaru, I'll be your proctor for this written exam. The rules are simple: 1. You have thirty minutes to answer the ten questions. 2. If you're caught cheating more than 5 times you'll be disqualified as will your team. 3. If you fail, your team will fail with you. 4. You need to get 7 of the questions right to pass. 5. The tenth question will be revealed once there is only 5 minutes left. If you need to use the restroom a proctor will have to escort you to ensure you don't cheat." Suzume smiled at that, already knowing how she'd proceed. "Ready? You may flip your papers over and begin!"

The mass sound of hundreds of papers being flipped and then the scratching of paper filled the room. Saki looked around her out of the corner of her eyes. She was in the middle of the room, and thus harder for the proctors to see. Making sure no one was looking she activated her byakugan, found someone who seemed to know what they were doing, and began copying them.

Haruko on the other, while thinking the question was hard, knew the answer and could write it out for herself. The second question posed a similar problem, but she figured it out eventually.

Takuma took one look at the question and was stumped. He knew that he had to pass this, but he wasn't sure how. Takuma's grades were only so good because he'd cram the night before then forget it after the test. He had coasted through the academy on luck, now here he was in the real world and completely stumped. _I wish Hayabusa sensei would've went over this stuff with us._

Suzume sat staring at her paper and pretending to do work for several minutes. Just looking at the paper she could tell it was bullshit. There was no way any genin would know those questions. After some time had passed, she raised her hand declaring, "I have to use the restroom!"

A proctor walked over, handcuffed her, and escorted her to the restroom. Suzume went inside the stall and sat down on the toilet. She didn't have to use the restroom, this was just part of the plan. Suzume made several all-to-familiar hand-signs and then split into two bodies. One got up, flushed the toilet and walked out of the stall while the other hid. One Suzume left with the proctor, while the other waited until the coast was clear.

_Ha! Since my separate bodies share the same conscience I'll be able to use one to go off and find out the answers while this one writes them down!_

"Number 65, you're disqualified. Numbers 87, 102, and 12 must leave also!" The four called shinobi got up and left.

Meanwhile, Data had realized the objective of the test, confident that information-gathering was his element. Putting his hands under his coat, Data made several hand-signs and then touched a small wad of paper with his finger. The small wad of paper grew limbs that were made of chakra and Data's conscience was transferred to it. Data then controlled the paper, having it walk under the table, using chakra control to hold itself up, and then walked back to the top in between two other genin. The wad of paper was so small that the test-focused genin wouldn't notice it, which meant that Data wouldn't be caught.

While still controlling the paper, Data memorized the answers that one of the genin had written, then released the jutsu. _I may have held the Inanimate Control jutsu too long, I feel pretty drained. At least I've got the answers and no-one caught me though._ Data thought to himself as he wrote down the answers.

"Number 43, you've been caught cheating. Numbers 76, 120, and 105 must leave also. Number 32 has also cheated five times. You're team, numbers 77, 131, and 5 must also leave."

Takuma looked at the clock, still not having a single answer written. _Damn, only five minutes before the tenth question. I can't fail this... I have to cheat! I'll use chakra detection and cheat off the guy next to me._ Doing just that, Takuma found that he could easily copy the answers down.

"Number 96, you're disqualified. Numbers 1, 45, and 119 must leave!"

Saki looked proudly at her nine, fully answered questions. Granted, they weren't her answers but she was still proud. Cheating with her byakugan was the only was Saki could pass written tests in the academy, let alone pass with flying colors. She was lucky that none of the instructors every caught her, otherwise her mother would've thrown a fit.

"Numbers 176, 54, 100, and 4 are disqualified!"

Haruko looked at the clock then back at her paper. She had three minutes to finish the ninth question. Staring at it stuck for a few seconds, the gears clicked in Haruko's head as she had a sudden epiphany and wrote the answer down. Glad that she finished with time to spare, Haruko set her pencil down and waited. She was positive that Sasuke would be proud of her once she told him that she didn't cheat at all. All she could do now was hope that no one else cheated and that everyone else did fine. Realizing just how bad it could be, Haruko started playing with her hair while she waited.

"Numbers 177, 185, 103, 3, 47, 81, 90, 58, 9, 199, 27, and 62 are all disqualified!"

Suzume looked up as twelve shinobi left the room. She laughed to herself when she noticed that one of Renga's friends was leaving. Suzume's double had gotten all the answers and was waiting to meet back up and rejoin. Looking up at the clock, Suzume saw there was one minute left.

"Numbers 132, 192, 24, and 79 are disqualified!" Right as that team got up, the bell timer rang.

"Okay then. If you've made it this far you haven't cheated, or at least haven't been caught cheating. Now then, the tenth question is more important than I made it out to be before. You can choose to attempt the tenth question, but if you fail you'll be banned from the chunin exams permanently. You can leave now and still take it next year, but your team must leave with you." Several genin stood up, followed by their team-mates. Shikamaru counted forty-four shinobi who left, thinning the numbers to about ninety-six. _That's still a lot of teams._ "Is that all?" No more shinobi stood up. "Then congratulate yourselves, you've passed this portion of the chunin exams!"

**Data's Shinobi cards:**

Wanderers:

Renga – 4.5 T, 3.5 N, 1.5 G, 1.5 K, 2.5 I, 4.5 Str, 1 Spd, 4 Stm; Yami's infamous Brick Wall; 23/40

Suzume – 1 T, 3.5 N, 3 G, 4 K, 3.5 I, 2.5 Str, 2.5 Spd, 3 Stm; trained by Hayabusa-sama, may know several kinjutsu, Yami's infamous Itamae; 23/40

Garasu – 1.5 T, 4 N, 1.5 G, 4 K, 2.5 I, 2.5 Str, 3.5 Spd, 3 Stm; trained in samurai arts by an unidentified sensei (maybe Hayabusa-sama), possesses several Hiden Techniques; 22.5/40

Konoha:

Hyuga Akio – 4 T, 2.5 N, 2 G, 1 K, 3 I, 3 Str, 4 Spd, 3 Stm; master of numerous Gentle Fist techniques; 22.5/40

Uzumaki Saki – 3.5 T, 3 N, 1.5 G, 2 K, 2 I, 2.5 Str, 3 Spd, 3.5 Stm; Daughter of Kyuubi's host, has byakugan, proficient in shadow clones, student of Hayabusa-sama; 21/40

Suna:

Eiji - 1 T, 4 N, 1 G, 1 K, 4 I, 2.5 Str, 4 Spd, 3 Stm; Son of Gaara of the sand, can manipulate sand similarly but with less control than his father's sand manipulation; 20.5/40

Pakura - 2 T, 4 N, 2 G, 2 K, 3 I, 2 Str, 3.5 Spd, 2.5 Stm; Named for the woman she's descended from, as such she can use Shakuton (Scorch release); 21/40

Kumo:

R – 3.5 T, 3.5 N, 2 G, 2.5 K, 2.5 I, 4 Str, 3 Spd, 2 Stm; Child of Killer B, is set to be the 8-tails next host; 23/40

Fumio – 1.5 T, 2.5 N, 3 G, 3 K, 4 I, 2.5 Str, 3 Spd, 3 Stm; Daughter of Darui, may be able to use Black Lightning; 22.5/40

Iwa:

Tomoe – 4.5 T, 2.5 N, 1 G, 1 K, 2 I, 4 Str, 3.5 Spd, 3 Stm; Taeguek's twin; 21.5/40

Taeguek – 4.5 T, 1 N, 2.5 G, 1 K, 3 I, 3.5 Str, 4 Spd, 2 Stm; Tomoe's twin; 21.5/40

Kiri:

Puuru – 1 T, 1 N, 3.5 G, 4 K, 4 I, 2.5 Str, 4.5 Spd, 2.5 Stm; Age 7, considered a prodigy at swordplay. Tactics based off Momochi Zabuza; 23/40

Sakana - 1 T, 4 N, 2 G, 4 K, 3.5 I, 2 Str, 4 Spd, 2 Stm; no notes; 22.5/40

Other Shinobi of Interest:

Data – 1 T, 2 N, 3.5 G, 3 K, 4.5 I, 1.5 Str, 2 Spd, 3 Stm; no notes; 20.5/40

Hayabusa-sama – 3 T, 4.5 N, 4.5 G, 4.5 K, 4 I, 3.5 Str, 4.5 Spd, 4 Stm; Renowned expert on any variety of weapons, particularly swords and explosives, trained by samurai, knows and has created several kinjutsu; 32.5/40

Lee Takuma – 3.5 T, .5 N, .5 G, 2.5 K, 3 I, 4.5 Str, 2 Spd, 2.5 Stm; student of Hayabusa-sama, not known to use ninjutsu or genjutsu, fights with a boxing stance, has incredible strength despite his small stature; 19/40

Uchiha Haruko - 2 T, 3 N, 2.5 G, 3 K, 3 I, 2 Str, 3 Spd, 2.5 Stm; Member of Uchiha clan but unknown if has sharingan, student of Hayabusa-sama, style seems dependent on shurikenjutsu; 21/40

*analgesics = painkillers; nootropics = smart drugs, cognitive/memory enhancers

** for the purpose of this fanfic, kenjutsu is expanded from just swords to all weaponry


End file.
